Amazing £22,000 raised for Caring Matters Now!
I had the great honor, yet again, of taking part in another CMN Charity Challenge, climbing 24 peaks in 24 hours. Beforehand I must admit I underestimated the difficulty of the challenge. I thought “24 peaks can’t be as tough as Mount Kilimanjaro”, however, I was soon to be proved very wrong!
Caring Matters Now has set a rather BIG challenge of undertaking 7 challenges on 7 continents. In 2011 a team of trekkers summited Mount Kilimanjaro, ticking off our first continent, so it was time to continue in our 7 continent challenge and tick off our second continent, Europe. We wanted to make this challenge as accessible as possible to all our members and supporters, therefore we thought 24 peaks in the Lake District over one weekend would be manageable for most. As a result we had 22 trekkers sign up and take part in the challenge. This included CMN dads and mums, adults with CMN, plus friends of CMN families within the charity. I was again astounded by how quickly these 22 individuals moulded as a strong team, working together to achieve one goal!
The challenge itself was the most physically tough activity I have ever done. People have asked how does it compare to Mount Kilimanjaro and I can only say that both challenges are very tough but for different reasons. The 24 peaks in 24 hours challenge was very tough due to the sheer amount of steep climbing we had to undertake in a very short space of time. Both days of the challenge included 12 hours walking up and down in weather conditions that were treacherous, so much so we lost our bearings on top of one of the mountains! This resulted in us descending down a particularly dangerous route. It was a blessing that the clouds were low, covering up the path we were taking, as when the clouds cleared we got to see exactly what we had just done; I was shocked!
The team was just amazing and they all pulled together, encouraging and motivating one another. When any one person was struggling, the rest of the team would be there to help in whatever way, through encouraging talk, carrying bags, giving up medicines or snacks; everyone was a real inspiration to me and I felt blessed to be a part of such a wonderful team.
Thank you to all the team for taking part in the 24 peaks in 24 hours challenge and for raising over £22,000 for Caring Matters Now! Well done everyone.
Jodi Whitehouse
