Three energetic workers put their fitness to the test when they completed the New York marathon to raise $15,000 for the scholarship fund to remember a colleague lost in the September 11 attacks.

Kirsten Heilesen, Geoffrey Blee and Iain Lever battled against the cold US weather to make it over the finish line in order to reach their target for the Rhondelle Tankard Memorial Fund. Rhondelle, 31, worked for Aon (Bermuda) and had been seconded to the New York office just two days before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

She was killed with hundreds others when the towers collapsed, and she was one of about 200 Aon workers who were lost that day. Her Bermuda colleagues set up a memorial fund in her honour with the aim of providing financial assistance to young students who wished to enter the insurance industry.

And now that fund is $15,000 better off. Mr. Lever said hundreds of Aon workers globally were taking part in the New York and Chicago marathons to raise funds for the American September 11 Aon fund.

But he and his two colleagues chose, instead, to make their efforts particular to the fund for Rhondelle. “I guess what made us do it was a combination of personal challenge and we were looking for a good cause to run for,” said Mr. Lever.