Watch 'wedding party' set off up Snowdon for bittersweet climb

A group of up to 30 people wearing wedding dresses set off up Snowdon today.

Maxine Beech came up with the idea to honour her late father, George Hinks, who passed away on Christmas Eve eight years ago.

The walkers are raising money for the British Heart Foundation.

The charity means a lot to Maxine as her father passed away of a heart attack the night before her now husband Richard was planning on asking him for her hand in marriage.

Richard also has a heart condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome which causes the heart to beat abnormally fast for periods of time.

Maxine said: “The charity means a lot to me because my dad passed away of a heart attack and my husband also has a heart condition.

“We always knew my dad had heart problems as he’d had a couple of heart attacks and a triple bypass, but it was still very sudden and unexpected when he died.

“We were actually on our way from Shropshire to Cambridgeshire to spend Christmas with them when he passed away.

“It’s very sad because Richard never got the chance to ask him for his blessing to marry me and he died never knowing about our engagement.

“Richard was admitted to hospital three months before our wedding and doctors had to forcibly stop his heart in an attempt to stop it beating irregularly.

“The then tried to restart it but the injections failed and they had to use a defibrillator to wake him up.

“Thankfully they fixed it and he’s OK now.

“I just started thinking that it’s about time I did something to raise money and awareness for this amazing charity and the work they do.”

Maxine, from Shropshire, and her family spent a lot of time in the area when she was a child, and her and her father used to frequently go walking in Llanberis.

“I think I got my love of North Wales from him,” she said, “he’d definitely be very proud of what we’re doing today.”