We did it, we completed the Yorkshire 3 Peaks!

At the end of the Poultec Awards day last summer, two of our staff members proposed the idea of taking on the Yorkshire 3 Peak challenge. We felt this would be a different type of fundraising event for us, as well as ticking something off of the bucket and personal achievement lists of the staff involved.

Oa Hackett, Founder of Little Lifts did a very powerful speech at our awards ceremony which included her personal breast cancer story and how it led her to forming the Little Lifts charity. We were all blown away by her sheer passion, ambition and kindness. It touched us all, giving us no doubts about completing the challenge, raising funds for Little Lifts – the charity of which Poultec is a Platinum partner.

 

We do lots of fundraising and staff social events throughout the year but this definitely had the best response as soon as the Yorkshire 3 Peak Challenge in aid of Little Lifts email was sent, the replies came flooding back very quickly resulting in 15 members of staff signing up to take on this epic challenge.

A physical challenge like this was a first for many of us, so training began straight away. Our gym was hit, lunch time walks were had and some visited the biggest hill in Norfolk; Beeston Bump and others even travelled to hillier parts of the country. All of us where eager to be as prepared as possible which also included shopping for walking boots, socks, poles and most importantly blister plasters. ‘No amount of training would have prepared me for the amount of physical and mental strength needed for this’ said Georgia. Food was also very high on the kit list with many purchasing half of the supermarket to ensure they didn’t starve on this long, calorie burning hike.

Each participate signed up for this challenge in honour of family members, friends and colleagues who have had or who are currently going through breast cancer treatment. Individual and group fundraising pages were set up and collectively an impressive 349 donations were received. We are amazed by all the donations and know this will help Little Lifts massively. Little Lifts provides breast cancer patients with free, thoughtfully curated Little Lifts gift boxes when they’re receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment.

The challenge … was challenging but the best! It started at 6:45am with Pen y Ghent being our first peak at 694m on the descend down. We all quickly realised how flat and smooth the Norfolk terrain is, therefore our hill climbs and hill descents were a little more difficult at times than ever imagined. Hannah said ‘it was beautiful and hellish but we made it’. We headed to the north west which is where we stopped for lunch, a sock change, replenished our rucksacks and re-applied plasters. Then we continued up along the railway line and curve round to the second peak - Whernside at 736m. This is where we crossed the county boundary to Cumbria to get to the top. The final peak was Ingleborough at 724m followed by the 5-miles descent ‘the longest 5-miles ever!!!’ said Ellen, down to Ribblesdale the finishing point. The steep, stepping stone, rocky paths up and down and in-between the peaks were certainly hard work for us all at times but with the breath-taking views, supportive team and food/drink stations throughout made the whole thing possible. Nic says ‘without our love and support for each other we really wouldn’t have got through it.’

We are all still absolutely buzzing to have accomplished such an incredible challenge for such an amazing charity. ‘Hardest challenge to date both physically and mentally but we did it’ Paula stated. For days afterwards, between us we had sore legs, ankles, knees, hips and throats as well as all being physically and mentally drained. ‘I was broken but so thrilled!’ says Chanelle.

We are all delighted and so so proud that we raised a mega total of £7,726 for Little Lifts. Being a platinum sponsor of Little Lifts, we make it our mission to raise as much money as possible for them and we done just this. We are greatly appreciative of all donations for this fantastic charity.

We would like to thank Little Lifts, who have been so supportive, appreciative and kind as always. We all received branded t-shirts and a goodie bag full of treats which we all loved and they really did help us along the way! Thank you so much!