'Heartbroken' Leeds pub owner to scale Three Peaks after late brother's charity cash stolen

Ricky Nugent, who attended Farnley High School, suffered a brain haemorrhage while playing rugby and sadly died just days before his 17th birthday in September 2009.

His family have dedicated the last 10 years to fundraising in Ricky's memory and his sister, Kelly Shaw, will scale the National Three Peaks in June.

Kelly, 40, owns a number of venues in Leeds and Bradford and was devastated to find someone had stolen a collection jar from one of her pubs - but she says it has spurred her on to do the challenge.

She said: "It was awful, really upsetting that anyone could take my brother's charity box. I was absolutely heartbroken.

"But I put out a Facebook appeal which got about 10,000 views in three hours and people were coming in the pub and dropping off money.

"The response has been so lovely, it made me cry."

Ricky's family and friends aim to reach a grand fundraising total of £50,000 before his birthday in September.

A close friend of Ricky's will walk the Yorkshire Three Peaks in March, before Kelly takes on the National Three Peaks in 24 hours with her 16-year-old daughter Ebony.

Kelly has a £5,000 target for the JustGiving fundraiser, which will be donated to Leeds Cares and the neurological ICU ward at Leeds General Infirmary.

The mum-of-four said: "My friend is a proper athlete and said he was doing it - I just got a bit taken away and thought, that's why I'm going to do. I'm dying already!

"There's a massive group of us going we'll be starting training properly in the next couple of weeks up in the Yorkshire Dales.

"We chose the national peaks because everyone does the Yorkshire ones, to try and hit this fundraising target we needed to do something that's a bit more of a challenge."

Ricky's mum, Anne Cameron, hosts regular raffles on Facebook to reach the big target and has made up raffle baskets to sell at her daughter's pubs.

The family are urging local businesses to get in touch to donate prizes, helping to raise money for charity Leeds Cares, which supports the city’s hospitals and their wards.

Kelly added: "We're doing it for Leeds Cares because of how much they helped us when we were in hospital. Just little things like free tea and coffee, a bed for us to stay in, were all supplied by Leeds Cares.

"I stayed there with Ricky overnight and in the short space of time he was in hospital, they looked after us and my brother. Something like that for families is so important."

Raffle prizes can be donated by getting in touch with Anne on Ricky's memorial page.