As many as 1 in 4 people experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year. With the enormous emotional, social and financial burden in mind, the Scottish Mental Health Research Network is raising money for the Mental Health Foundation (Scotland), a charity which strives to improve Scotland's mental health policies in order to help and support those affected by mental health problems.

We at the Scottish Mental Health Research Network have decided to undertake a stair climb in none other than our place of work...the eight storey Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital! We aim to climb as many steps as possible from 9pm on Thursday 21st March straight through to 9pm on Friday 22nd March. We don’t know how many ascents will be possible, but as a guide – the Eiffel tower is the equivalent of 12 ascents, the Burj Khalifa (World’s Tallest Building) the equivalent of 31 ascents and Mt Kilimanjaro (5895m) the equivalent of 218 ascents.  At the top of the list (and the world) is our ultimate goal of climbing the equivalent of Mt Everest.  At 8848m (29,029 ft) this is the equivalent of a staggering 327 ascents of the tower.  Not only will we be ascending the tower throughout the 24 hours, we will also be descending the tower the same number of times.  The North Sea is about 26 descents deep, the Cayman Trough is 284 descents deep and the Mariana Trench a knee-buckling 408 descents. So with this in mind, and if our joints permit it, we also aim to climb the additional 81 ascents/descents required to also reach the very bottom of the Mariana Trench!

 We’ll be climbing through the day and night and hope to keep everyone up-to-date via our dedicated Twitter-feed (https://twitter.com/SMHRN1), so login and follow the action!

We've set up this JustGiving page and hope you can make whatever contribution you can to the Mental Health Foundation. All the money will then go to the Scottish branch of the charity once the climb is complete.

 Best wishes,

The SMHRN climbers!