Last updated at 21:04, Thursday, 12 May 2011

Former pupils and staff from Beacon Hill School in Aspatria have raised £1,000 from a school reunion.

Title
Author
Copyright

Description

It was organised by Chantel Peacock, 35, who now lives in Adelaide in Australia but returned to Britain to run the London Marathon.

She said: “I was raising money for Oxfam, which is a good international cause.

“I wondered how I could raise more when I was here and thought about how much I would like to catch up with old friends – and the school reunion was the result.”

Chantel went to school with David Monkhouse, the Royal Dragoon Guards medic who died on foot patrol in Afghanistan last year.

Another friend, Emma Riddick, was a close friend of Sgt Monkhouse, so it was decided that half the proceeds from the school reunion would go to Oxfam and half towards a plaque in memory of Sgt Monkhouse to be erected in the local church.

“We now have enough money to do that, so that is amazing,” said Chantel.

She added that about 100 pupils and teachers from several years attended the reunion, which took the form of an 1980s disco and was held in the Aspatria Rugby Club rooms last Saturday.

Chantel, who returns to Australia in two weeks, said it had been a lovely holiday and the marathon was special too.

“It is the first time I have ever done a marathon and I completed it in four hours and 22 seconds,” she said.

“I was gutted about the 22 seconds.”

First published at 19:19, Thursday, 12 May 2011
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk