Sheffield: Jennie Stevens' Winter Spine race raises £9k for students

A woman from Sheffield has raised £9,000 by completing a 268 mile (431km) race to support students in need of financial help.

Jennie Stevens completed the non-stop Winter Spine race in under six days.

Starting in Edale, Derbyshire, and finishing in Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders, participants have to complete the challenge within 168 hours.

The money she has raised help fund scholarships for low-income students.

Ms Stevens, student support manager at the University of Sheffield, said she slept very little during the five days and 21 hours she took to complete the course.

"After the first 150 miles (240km) I only slept for two hours," she said.

"I slept about 14 hours altogether, some at checkpoints and some out on the trail."

She said she would look for "a dip in the snow" to collapse in and set her phone to wake her up.

"I slept six or seven minutes like that a couple of times," she said.

She said the toughest part of the race was "trudging through snow", but said she got a "buzz" out of the challenge.

Ms Stevens said she had received a lot of support for her fundraising which had been "overwhelmingly positive".

"Every now and again I take stock and think, wow, well done," she said.

"It's so easy to move on with life but I do need to keep thinking 'ok yeah, I did a good job'."

The money will be used to support scholarships at the University of Sheffield for women from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Winter Spine race was won by competitor Jack Scott, from Staffordshire, in under 73 hours.

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