STAFF at a Wrexham store have climbed Snowdon in aid of charity.

And they ascended Wales’ highest mountain without setting foot outside Marks & Spencer in the Eagles Meadow shopping centre.

Their effort was in aid of the town’s Nightingale House Hospice.

With the aid of a cross-trainer and a step machine, staff took it in turns to rack up enough steps to take them to the to the ‘summit’, which stands at 3,560 feet.

The challenge has particular importance to one member of staff whose cousin was cared for at the hospice at the end of her long battle with cancer.

Jackie Roberts, 48, who has worked for Marks & Spencer for almost 30 years, saw first-hand the kindness and dignity with which her cousin, Catherine Davies, was treated at Nightingale House.

Since Catherine’s death in 1997, Jackie and other members of her family have helped to raise money for the hospice which needs well over £2 million a year just to stay open.

Jackie, who grew up with Catherine, said: “She was 35 when she died and a mother of three children and her youngest was only five. It was just so very sad. I remember her as a quiet, gentle person, who was a lovely mum and loved her job as a nurse.”

Jackie, who is married to Geraint and mum to Lucy, 14, said: “I always remember it as such a peaceful, tranquil place.

“Of course, you knew what was coming. We knew how ill she was, but the place just didn’t have that stark, clinical feeling.”

The charity event, which raised £300, was part of 100 days of fundraising by Marks and Spencer staff in aid of the hospice.

Through a pub quiz, raffle, bag packing and their Snowdon climb, staff have raised close to £2,000.

Wendy Gibson, fundraising manager at Nightingale House, said: “Because we get so little Government funding, we have to raise the rest and the rest is £5,600 every single day and that only comes from the community at large and those people that have a personal link to the hospice and are in a position to fundraise.”

To help Nightingale House Hospice, go to www.nightingalehouse.co.uk or telephone 01978 314292.