Pole marathon man plans next challenge

OH my aching feet . . . St Joseph’s deputy head teacher Steve Hill with pupils (back, from the left) Maya Burke-Perez, James Wilson, Kade Wrigley, Lucy Lovell. Front: Jonathan Diveney and Jasmine Carroll.

Teacher Steve Hill has returned from a freezing trip to the North Pole... and has immediately started planning his next challenge.

The deputy head of St Joseph’s Primary School, Shaw, braved temperatures of minus 41 degrees as he took on the North Pole Marathon, finishing 30th in 9hr 37min 9sec.

“I got back at midnight last night and I’m back in school this morning,” he said. “I’m looking forward to sharing the experience with the children and it’s great to be back. I could have slept for days.”

Steve said: “It was a brutal but amazing experience. I stood up there pinching myself thinking am I really here? I started well and was right at the front... for about 10 metres! But then all the elite athletes left me behind.

“It was tough underfoot and I was knee-deep in snow at points. I was falling over and the visibility was bad. It was good fun though. I enjoyed it — I think there must be something wrong with me.”

Steve’s annual challenges have helped his year six classes raise more than than £50,000 for charities.

This year they are raising money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, still birth and neonatal death charity Sands, the Royal Oldham Hospital’s special care baby unit, and the British Heart Foundation.

Steve is yet to decide how to continue his fundraising drive — his options include the South Pole marathon.

He said: “It was different to anything I’ve done before. Everest was hard but this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done by far.”

He added: “I’ve got a couple of weeks to recover now before I set the next challenge. I want to keep the momentum going so watch this space.”