No masking support for daredevil teacher

STEVE HILL times four - but only one is the real thing. Pupils wore Mr Hill masks as a tribute to their teacher. PHOTO BY DARREN ROBINSON

PUPILS staged a special send-off for super teacher Steve Hill, who is tackling the gruelling North Pole marathon next Thursday.

Children from St Joseph’s Primary School, Shaw, wore “Mr Hill” masks in tribute to the daredevil deputy head. They also braved the rain — if not the -40C of the Arctic — and wore fancy dress to complete a charity run of their own.

Steve, who received the MBE for services to education and charity from the Queen last month, flies to Oslo and then on to Svalbard — an island off the north coast of Norway — on Sunday.

He will then travel to the North Pole where he will spend two nights and complete the gruelling 26.2 miles — described as the world’s coolest marathon.

It will be the ninth epic challenge Steve has done as part of the annual fundraising efforts by his Year 6 classes, which have raised more than £50,000 for a range of charities.

This year they are supporting the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the still birth and neonatal death charity Sands, the Royal Oldham Hospital’s special care baby unit, the British Heart Foundation, as well as raising funds for a defibrillator for the school.

To sponsor Steve visit www.justgiving.com/ Stephen-Hill07.