Employees from the Old Mill accountants and financial planners have ran 13.1 miles to raise £2,700 for the co-worker who died in 2016.

Stuart Coombe, Kim Barnard and Simon Cole were co-workers of Nick and decided to run the Exeter half marathon in memory of their colleague and raiss money for Exeter based cancer charity FORCE.

Hailing from Sidmouth. Nick was a keen sportsman. Playing football, rugby and golf he also completed triathlons and finished three London Marathons. His sporting nature inspired his co-workers to take on a challenge of their own.

The trio were part of an eight person team from Old Mill complete with friends and family to participate in the 13.1 mile trek.

Simon was joined by his son Matthew and the FORCE charity is one close to his heart having also lost his brother to melanoma last year.

The group set an initial fundraising target of £500 only to see that amount beaten five times over. The total currently stands closer to £2,800 and Stuart says a new target of £3,000 has been set.

Stuart said: “Cancer is the scourge of the modern era but the amazing people at FORCE do truly fantastic work to provide equipment and support to those in the local area. To raise a significant amount for FORCE we wanted to do something far outside of our comfort zone.

The team battled treacherous conditions with Stuart, Kim and Simon all finishing in less than three hours. “It was a real challenge for the three of us and we are so proud to have completed it, especially in what can only be described as appalling weather conditions”

FORCE is an Exeter based cancer charity that has funded research and bought equipment to improve patient care since 1987.

They also run a support and information centre in Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital to offer cancer sufferers support.

Oly Watts is the fundraising development officer at FORCE and he said: “FORCE Cancer Charity relies entirely on voluntary contributions to keep the support and services we offer available to anyone affected by cancer and we can’t thank Old Mill enough for their huge support.”

You can visit https://goo.gl/BEc4HV to find out more and donate.