INTREPID explorer and teacher Steve Hill has paid tribute to his charity’s team of volunteers who have helped raise more than £10,000 for good causes and supported the elderly and vulnerable through the coronavirus pandemic.

Steve launched his own charity Team Hill in August last year and has continued running marathons – several round his Moorside home – as well as orchestrating about 25 volunteer friends and relatives providing assistance in Oldham’s communities.

The Team Hill stalwarts have taken supplies from more than 1,000 around the borough to the elderly and vulnerable in isolation.

They have collected prescriptions for people needing medication and made more than 1,500 welfare calls checking on people.

Alongside the Oldham organisation Action Together, Team Hill also supplied more than 500 comfort packages for staff on the Covid wards at the Royal Oldham Hospital and goody bags and teddies for the children’s ward.

“We have also collected and delivered a huge amount of knitted items for the neonatal unit at the hospital and continue to do so,” said the 48-year-old deputy head teacher of St Joseph’s RC School in Shaw.

Steve’s keenness to help with humanitarian work in the Uganda town of Masaka, where he ran a marathon last year, has also continued.

“We’ve funded a roof on a new dormitory at a school and provided funds for food and PPE equipment and a new oxygen concentrator at a clinic in Masaka,” he said.

“It’s been a very busy few months but it’s been great to be able to help out both here in Oldham and in Uganda and try and make a small difference in the world.

“We can’t thank our wonderful supporters enough for everything they have done to support Team Hill in our mission to make a difference.”

“When lockdown started in March, we had a meeting of the trustees of Team Hill and decided it was time to step up to the plate.

“The people who have come forward top help have included people have been furloughed and some of friends and relatives, but others have never met before.”

And he paid special tribute to volunteer Diana Heywood who has co-ordinated the effort to take supplies to local shops to the vulnerable.

Steve's previous fundraising adventures have included climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, trekking through the Sahara Desert, climbing Mount Elbrus the highest mountain in Europe, trekking through the Arctic and through the jungles of Borneo, climbing Mount Kinabalu, trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp and then completing the Tenzing Hillary Mount Everest Marathon.

Others have been completing the North Pole Marathon, the Petra Desert Marathon, the Amazon Jungle Ultra Marathon – a 230km self-sufficient footrace through the Amazon jungle equivalent to six marathons in five days.

He has completed the Uganda Marathon, climbing Mount Toubkal and recently successfully took part in the Arctic Ice Ultra – a 230km self-sufficient footrace through the Arctic wilderness in winter.

And he will be taking to the road again on Sunday, October 4 when he completes a 26-mile “Virtual London Marathon” round the streets of Oldham. Contributions can made by visiting the Team Hill Charitable Trust online at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Steve-Hill-7