On 4th April Katie G will attempt to climb Pike O'Blisco, a 705m mountain in the Lake District, to raise money for Wildlives, a fantastic animal rescue centre in Essex that depends entirely on donations

Wildlives is a rescue and rehabilitation centre for wild animals and birds that are injured as a direct result of their encounters with our world. It's run by volunteers and depends entirely on donations from members of the public in order to continue. Every year hundreds of animals are brought to the centre in Thorrington, Essex by members of the public, the RSPCA and other animal welfare organisations, to be treated and cared for until they're well enough to be released. The six-acre centre   is run from the home of founder Rosie Catford, and any deficit in funding is made up from Rosie's own savings.

We had cause to be very grateful to Wildlives when we discovered an injured Little Owl who was trapped by his leg in the ruins of an old barn. Unable to fly and needing medical attention, this beautiful creature would have died were it not for this brilliant charity, who were happy to admit him late on a Sunday afternoon and do whatever was needed to nurse him back to health. The owl, who we named Chequers, made a full recovery and was released back into the wild.

Ever since then we've been wanting to raise some much-needed funds for Wildlives, and Katie has been particularly keen to do something. So she has decided to climb a mountain! Pike O' Blisco is a 705m peak near Ambleside in the Lake District, and on 4th April Katie (along with us!) will attempt the climb. She would be delighted if you would sponsor her efforts and has written her own account of our discovery of Chequers and why she would like to help Wildlives:

"We were cycling back from a lovely fathers day lunch when my dad thought he saw an owl or some sort of bird.He had noticed it had flown into an abandoned barn. Being the curious dad my dad is, he went to have a closer look, to find that it was an owl that had swooped in but also to find a distressed baby owl with its leg caught under some heavy construction.

We brought the baby owl home and cared for it for a short period of time. In that time we decided to name him Chequers after the pub we had just eaten in.Then we found somewhere that Chequers could get some help (Wildlives). They looked after him and found out he had damaged his leg. Wildlives  released him and now he is free living a happy life: that's why we need sponsors to help Chequer's family and lots of other critters that need our help.After all animals deserve as good a life as we do."          

Katie Gurbutt