A Pudsey estate agent is to hit new heights as part of an epic mountain adventure to raise funds for the region’s leading children’s and young people’s hospice.
Alex Woodhouse, valuation manager at Linley & Simpson’s branch on Church Lane, will join 11 colleagues as they bid to conquer the summits of the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales – all within 24 hours.
The National Three Peaks Challenge forms the centrepiece of the company’s pledge to raise £25,000 for Martin House Children’s Hospice, at Boston Spa, near Wetherby, as part of its 25th anniversary year.
Alex’s adventure will begin with an evening climb of the 1,345m-high Ben Nevis in Scotland, before travelling to the Lake District as dawn rises to conquer the 978m summit of Scafell Pike – the tallest in England.
The footsore fund-raiser will then face another race against time to drive to Wales for the final stage, and scaling the 1,085m summit of Snowdon in the early afternoon.
To hit the 24-hour target, he has set himself a timescale of between 4hrs 30mins and 5hrs 30 mins to complete each climb.
The overall walking distance is around 23 miles and the driving distance spanning the three countries is 462 miles. The total ascent is more than 3,400 metres – around the height of 800 double-decker buses and is double the scale of the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge, comprising Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough,
Alex said:
“This represents, by far, the most exciting yet daunting challenge we have set ourselves in our company’s history.
“Martin House has been a key partner on our journey and we are thrilled to support its amazing team once again, in this our 25th anniversary year.
“Its inspirational work touches the lives of all of us, and will spur us on every step on the climb to ensure we safely summit all three peaks within 24 hours – traffic hold-ups and any diversions permitting.”
In addition to Alex, the dozen daredevils also include founders Will Linley and Nick Simpson. They will be waved off from Martin House at dawn on Monday, June 27 and will return the following day. It will be guided throughout by mountain leaders from Kuta Outdoors, a West Yorkshire-based specialist in UK-wide hiking and outdoor team-building events.
Since Linley & Simpson – which has more than 20 branches across Yorkshire and The Humber – launched its charity partnership with Martin House Children’s Hospice six years ago, it has raised more than £100,000.
Abigail Proctor, partnerships manager at Martin House, said:
“The team at Linley & Simpson have taken on some incredible challenges to raise money for Martin House, but this must be the biggest yet. We’re so proud to have their support, which makes a real difference to the families we care for, and we wish Alex and the rest of the team best of luck with their challenge.”
Each member of Team Linley & Simpson has pledged to raise £1,000 or more in aid of Martin House through their own individual JustGiving pages, which can be found here.
