Whitby coastguard completed a 3.8-mile stretcher carry from Sandsend to St Mary’s Church in Whitby – which is due to raise more than £1,000 for the historic clifftop church.

The challenge was to raise funds towards repair of the church clock faces, which were removed last year – the parish of Whitby and Ruswarp estimates the repairs overall could cost “tens of thousands” of pounds.

So the coastguard team members set about organising a stretcher carry, loaded with a training mannequin, from Sandsend car park at the foot of Lythe Bank to St Mary’s Church on June 9.

Posting on their Facebook page, Whitby Coastguard said: “We did it – challenge complete!

Whitby Coastguard team at St Mary's Church, Whitby, on completion of the challenge, with Rev Michael Gobbett.

"We carried our cliff stretcher with training dummy, a combined weight of about 60kg, 3.8miles.

“Thank you to our colleagues from our flank team Staithes Coastguard for helping us.

“Our friends from Whitby Fire Rescue Service team joined us on the rope demo / display at Captain Cook’s monument to demonstrate how different services can work together effectively whenever we need to.

“Our route included Church Street and the iconic 199 Steps, where our friends from Whitby RNLI lifeboat joined us and finally finishing at St Mary's Church.

Whitby Coastguard team's stretcher carry in front of the beach huts (left) and up the cliff!

“Thank you to everyone who came out to support us.”

They are expecting to pass the £1,000 mark by the time cash from collection buckets and other donations is counted.

The Go Fund Me page will be still open for another couple of weeks.

Visit https://gofund.me/c92961fc if you would like to make donations.

Whitby Coastguard team stretcher carry will top £1,000 towards St Mary's Church clock repairs

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