THE friends of a man who tragically died in a car crash have successful raised enough money to allow his family to complete a car renovation, he had been working on before his sudden passing, by climbing the Three Peaks.

Kyle Goater, a mechanical engineer from Keighley, lost his life on July 20 when the 25-year-old’s black MG ZS collided with two other vehicles on Moor Road, Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Before his death, the car fanatic had been working on a major side project where he was attempting to convert an old Rover 45 into the “Evo Killer”.

Gutted that his pal could not finish the transformation himself, Sam Treece was determined to raise enough money to make this happen.

Sam banded together some of his and Kyle’s closest mates and roped them into the daring National Three Peaks Challenge.

Sam, Andy Miers, Keiran Lambert, Connor Fox, Tom Summerfield, Jack Bancroft, Joe Wain and Caleb Wright all completed a total walking distance of 23 miles and the total ascent of 10,052ft - a similar mileage as the Yorkshire Three Peaks but twice the ascent.

The eight buddies did extremely well to climb the highest mountains of England, Scotland and Wales (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon) within 24 hours over the weekend of August 21-22.

But, more importantly, they were able to raise the £5,000 needed to complete the renovation.

Sam feels Kyle would have been super proud of him and his mates for doing the challenge.

He said: “I was very close to Kyle. Before I went to university, we would see each other pretty much every day. He was more like family.

“My mate rang me and told me the news, I was pretty shocked by it. I was speechless. I went home that same day to meet all the boys and had a drink to pay tribute to him.

“I had seen people do fundraisers before, so I just came up with the idea the morning after and tried to get everyone on board.

“I was looking at the Yorkshire Three Peaks at first but then thought against that and said we will do the more ruthless national one.

“I didn’t know what to expect going into it. It was the lack of sleep which was the biggest problem.

“Kyle would have been blown away. He would have probably been laughing at us up there.

“It’s nuts that we have raised so much money. I am just happy that everyone has come out, close friends, family and workmates have all donated.

“It will be his dad and brother who will finish the car off because they know what they are doing.

“It was something Kyle had been working on for ages. It is just a shame that he never got to finish it. He was well into his cars, so this is the perfect tribute to him."

All donations, big or small, would still be greatly appreciated and would be used to create the perfect tribute to Kyle.

At time of writing, the GoFundMe page is currently at £5,570 thanks to 114 donors.

You can still donate by visiting: https://uk.gofundme.com/f/three-peaks-challenge-for-kyle-goater/three-peaks-challenge-for-kyle-goater/share