A Bradford man led a mountain-walking team and raised at least £800 in memory of his brother - despite the effort suffering a major blow.

John Carroll, along with colleagues including Darren Waterhouse, Dean Sharkey and Mark Sands, aimed to climb the highest peaks in the UK in 24 hours to raise money for the Annette Fox Leukaemia Research Fund. And they were set to succeed... but their mini-bus broke down on the way to Snowdon.

John's brother Graham died from the disease four years ago, aged 37.

The 53-year-old had donated his bone marrow for a transplant but Graham died four months after the operation.

John said his younger brother was 36 when he was diagnosed with leukaemia.

"The doctors said a bone marrow transplant was his only cure. Me and my other brother George went through tests and found we were both compatible."

Being younger, John was chosen as the donor and the bone marrow transplant was carried out at St James's Hospital, Leeds, in January 1999.

But the transplant did not work properly and Graham deteriorated.

"It was awful. He died in April," John said.

The maintenance assistant at Bradford Royal Infirmary decided to raise money for Ward 7 after doing some work there. The ward is home to the Annette Fox Haematology Unit, which was funded by the charity and opened in 1993.

The fund, which is named after a young Bradford leukaemia sufferer, supports haematology services in the city.

John said it was good to do the walk in memory of his brother. "It gave me a little bit more incentive and it meant something," he said.

John and his colleagues in the hospital's estates department climbed Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike faster than planned but were unable to complete the challenge and conquer Snowdon after their mini-bus broke down.

"I was gutted because it should not happen like that.

"We would have done it and we wanted to do what we set out to achieve."

However, he said the group were pleased they were set to raise between £800 and £1,000.

Fellow walker Mr Waterhouse said the group made a good start.

"We aimed to climb Ben Nevis in five hours but made it in four and did Scafell in three rather than four.

"But we ended up stuck on the M6, unable to complete the challenge - it was really disappointing."

Last year the walkers raised money for Manorlands Hospice, Oxenhope, by tackling Ingleborough, Pen-Y-Ghent and Whernside.