Firefighters climbed double the height of Mount Everest on their ladders to raise money for a trainee with cancer.

Ten members of West Norwood Fire Station's blue watch team volunteered to climb 17,696 meters on their ladders, the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest twice, at the weekend’s Lambeth Country Show.

Each firefighter had to do 296 trips up the ladder to make up the distance.

It took the team six hours to complete the first 8,848 meters on Saturday, the equivalent of scaling Everest once, and just under that time to do the same distance again on Sunday.

Sally Coxon, blue watch manager, said: "It was tiring and it was difficult with the rain, but we got some fantastic support from the public."

The stunt helped raise money for trainee Firefighter Lee Fahey, 32, who has liver cancer. The ladder climb raised £1,200 and followed volunteers raising almost £2,000 earlier in the year doing the three peaks challenge, climbing the three highest mountains in Britain in 24 hours.

Mrs Coxon said: "We're going to give £600 to the Firefighter's Charity and £600 to Lee, along with some of the other money we've raised. He doesn't know anything about it yet, some of us are going to go down and give it to him soon.”