Essex Young Farmers Three Peaks Challenge

                          WE'VE DONE IT!!!!

Yesterday a tired but very happy bunch of Essex Young Farmers made their way home from Snowdonia, after completing the Three Peaks Challenge on Friday. Thankfully we kept to our target and returned with the same number of people we left with, although we did get some funny looks at the services on the way back as we all seem to have adopted a strange penguin-style walk!

I'm really pleased to say that all groups completed the challenge by reaching the top of Snowdon in the 24 hours, which involved climbing Ben Nevis (1,344 metres), Scafell Pike (978 metres) and Snowdon (1,085 metres) as well as driving the 475 miles between the three.

We'd like to thank everybody who has sponsored us so far, and all those who are continuing to sponsor us now we've finished. (The people who wanted to make sure we could do it first!)

The Walkers: Alyson Starling, Andrew Sell, Annabel Bunting, Anthony Hicks, Byron Stevens, Chris Bucknell, Chris Gurton, Dickie Belchambers, Duncan Wreathall, Elizabeth Thorogood, George Mann, James Benton, James Hawkes, James Mugleston, Jess Clarke, Jess Shrimpton, Kim Wallis, Kurt Brown, Nick McTurk, Peter Wyld, Rich Butler, Rob Mann, Sam Body, Tim Purser, Tom Benton and Will Wreathall.

The Support Team: Andrew Metson, Andrew Upson, Anna Rutterford, Chris Metson, Christie Willet, Helen Radbourne, Kayleigh Mackness, Jac Cadman, Matt Bunting, Patricia Fulcher, Richard Carey, Sam Metson, Scott Wiffen, Sophie Mugleston and Lauren Rudgely.

The money we raise is going to be divided evenly between 3 charites: Essex Air Ambulance, Children with Leukaemia and the Essex Young Farmers Building Fund. 

Essex Air Ambulance: Since its launch in 1998 the Essex Air Ambulance has flown 9,988 missions. The Air Ambulance is able to reach remote and normally inaccessible parts of Essex quickly, bringing skilled medical staff and equipment to the area within the first minutes of an emergency. Despite this, the charity doesn’t receive any funding from the National Lottery, and is wholly dependent on the support of the county to keep going. The monthly cost of keeping the aircraft flying is £150,000 and each emergency flight costs over £2000. If we reach our fundraising target our donation to the charity should be able to fund at least the equivalent of one emergency flight, and hopefully a bit more!

Children with Leukaemia: This is the leading charity in the dedicated exclusively to fighting leukaemia in children. The money they raise goes towards funding research and welfare programmes, and raising awareness of Britain’s biggest childhood cancer. The charity has been around for the last 20 years and the money raised has funded research into causes and treatments, as well as supporting families and campaigning to improve the understanding and awareness of the illness.  The charity currently receives no government funding and so also relies completely on donations to maintain the work that they are doing and the progress that is being made.

Essex Young Farmers Building Fund: For over 20 years, it has been an ambition of Essex Young Farmers to own their own headquarters. In 2007, we got planning permission to convert a redundant farm building in Chatham Green into our permanent home. Since September 2006, we have raised almost £200,000 of the required £350,000 through a range of fundraising events and campaigns, as well as various grants. Most recently, we received £17,052 from Essex County Council Community Initiative Youth Fund, but we still have a little way to go, so any donations would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.essexyoungfarmers.com/building-project.html