Group Info
Completion Date
4th May, 2019.
Group Members
Katie Foster, Kelly Cross, Taffy Hartley and Neil Campbell
About Your Team
I decided to complete the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge in memory of my sister Emma Foster, who died unexpectedly at only 37 years old on the 22nd December 2018. She was an amazing mother and teacher at Thornbury Academy, she loved children so I decided to fund raise for The Make A Wish Foundation UK in her memory.
My first choice of team member was my good friend Kelly Cross, who is always up for a challenge, she agreed without hesitation. My next choice was my fiancee, Taffy Hartley, who wanted to come with us to make sure we were safe and his best friend Neil Campbell was also keen to complete the challenge with us..
Completion Time
11 hours 37 minutes
Charity Information
Charity
Make a Wish Foundation UK
About the Charity
Make-A-Wish UK creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses . Hundreds of seriously ill children turn to them every month and they believe every one of them deserves to experience their one true wish.
They receive no government funding – so rely on the generous support of people like you.
Charity’s Website
https://www.make-a-wish.org.uk/
Charity Fundraising Link
https://www.gofundme.com/in-memory-of-emma-foster-make-a-wish-foundation
Amount Raised
£1660 and growing
Photographs
Notes from the Day:
We set off from my home address in Pudsey at 5.15am, all excited and in high spirits, ready to take on the challenge. We set off from Pen-Y-Ghent Cafe at 7.25am and climbed Pen-Y-Ghent quite easily. As it was a bank holiday weekend it was busy so we had to queue at certain points, this was fine by me it gave me a few moments to catch my breath and mentally prepare for the steepness of the peak. The top of the peak is very steep and we had to scramble up the rocks to reach the top, I have a fear of heights so this was difficult for me, but i had 3 letters that i’d written for my sister, who i was doing this in memory of so i focused on that, delivering her letters and this was more important to me than my fear of heights. We reached the summit and had our picture taken and ate a frozen snickers bar (that’s how cold it was at the top our food had frozen).
We set off on the long walk from Pen-Y-Ghent to Whernside, the viaduct in our sights just never seemed to get any closer, after what seemed an eternity we reached the station pub for a well deserved 20 minute break. My lovely fiancee had arranged for family and friends to be at the pub to lift our spirits and keep us going! It worked a treat and got our motivation going again, my sister-in-law and her partner decided to join us on the second peak, we had a quick cider / cup of tea and set off to Whernside. I did find this peak the easiest to climb, it is a lot longer but not as steep so i put my headphones in and listened to music all the way up and i enjoyed it. The descent is very steep and my fiancee had to bare with me while i took my time coming down slowly and trying not to panic!
The original four of us set off to Ingleborough, by this point our knees, lower backs and hips were starting to ache, by the time we reached the bottom of Ingleborough, our motivation was at an all time low, it looked so steep and we were so tired and achy, i will admit i had doubts whether I could finish the challenge but my fiancee reminded me that i had to leave my sister her last letter so that spurred me on, as we were reaching the top the hailstone started, and the wind was so strong, it was very scary and steep and i did worry that i’d be blown too hard and lose my footing and fall, but we made it!
We had a massive hug, had our 3rd peak picture taken and set off on the never ending walk back to the cafe, and when i say never ending i do mean never ending, i began to worry that we’d taken a wrong turn as there was no way it could be this far away! it just went on and on and on , we kept our heads down and just kept putting one foot in front of the other, not talking and trying to not think about how tired and achy and stiff we were feeling. We practically hobbled the last mile, but we made it! We’d completed it in 11 hours and 37 minutes! I didn’t feel the sense of achievement that everybody said i would feel while i posted our finish times at the cafe letter box, i didn’t feel anything i was exhausted and i just wanted to get home and get my boots off! The feeling came the morning after when i woke up and looked over at my fiance with the biggest smile on my face and said ‘i cant believe we did that yesterday!’
You can submit your own challenge, photographs and charity information to the Think Adventure website for free. It’s a great way to promote your Yorkshire Three Peaks walk.
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