CRAVEN College tutor and long standing member of the Cave Rescue Organisation, Andy Jackson, took second place in the Spine Challenger ultra marathon.

Andy, from Skipton, was one of three CRO members, along with Graham Hughes and Heather Eastwood, to take part in the 108 mile race along the Pennine Way and raise money for the charity at the same time.

And in just his first ever attempt, he came in second, in a time of 34 and a half hours.

“This is the first time I have done the Spine Challenger, and it was fantastic to finish second," he said.

"At one point I was three hours behind the lead but I managed to cut the time to just 50 minutes. The Spine Challenger lived up to its reputation with full on winter conditions – cold, wet, fog, snow, ice - and the night section was horrendous - just like the day but pitch black – we used GPS to navigate."

Andy, a member of Clapham based CRO for 24 years, said: “It is my way of giving something back, to volunteer and when I can to raise funds because the CRO needs around £40,000 a year to just keep going. They don’t get any government or other funding so it’s up to us to do as much as we can.”

Anyone who would like to donate money to help towards the work of CRO can do it online through the Just Giving site at justgiving.com/fundraising/Heather-Eastwood1