Firefighters from Monmouth Fire Station climbed a phenomenal 21,196m (4,416 flights of steps) over a 24-hour marathon climb to raise money for Chase Vaughan who suffers from cerebral palsy and needs £40,000 for a life changing operation.

The firemen had hoped to climb the equivalent height of Everest in 24 hours but they smashed their original target and actually climbed Everest x 2.5.

Starting on Saturday the men and women climbed through the night, raising over £2,000 on the day with much more sponsorship money yet to be collected.

Darren Cleaves, works manager at Monmouth Fire Station said: "We were really pleased to have smashed our target of Everest.

"It was really cold on Saturday night but we had a rotation of people doing the climb so no one got too cold.

"We had supporters with us up to about 2am on Saturday night and then the staff from Waitrose arrived at 5.30am and came over to cheer us on which was great."

Chase's mum Helen Morgan said: "I cannot thank Monmouth firefighters and helpers enough for their efforts to help with our fundraising for Chase, they all did brilliantly and it was an amazing effort by all involved."

The station would like to thank all those who helped and supported them in their fundraising efforts, including: Welfare Hire Nationwide, Eagle Plant, Travis Perkins, County Contracts, PDJ Price – Grounworks, Costa Coffee, Seven Seas Chip Shop, GM Engineering, Pasty Heaven, King Kebabs, Usk Valley Scaffold, St John's Ambulance and Friend and Family of Monmouth Fire Station.