Help us to help families damaged by Covid. We have already given away £10,000 through our Covid Relief Fund. Now we want to support Young Carers (young people caring for a family member) and Wellspring (people affected mentally by the pandemic) as well as dealing with other Covid-related emergencies. We are raising funds by climbing Everest. Will you sponsor or donate to help us reach our £5,000 target? Please give us your support.

THE CHALLENGE

We aim to get some twenty Club members to Base Camp and then a party of six will start up towards the summit. To succeed between us we will have to walk over 1,500 miles and climb 1,000,000 feet.

For some weeks now Club members have been getting miles in the bank by pounding lanes and fields, trekking across the Yorkshire Dales and climbing anything that can be climbed locally. Steps up to Knaresborough Castle, stairs in a high-rise apartment, even the hill at the back of a members house. Project leader Graham Chilvers has devised a formula that enables him to translate our Yorkshire miles and feet of ascent into Everest miles and feet taking account of altitude, gradient, weather and under-foot conditions. An Everest mile can be many Yorkshire miles.

To date the trek has raised some £2500 in sponsorship from members and friends but now were opening it up to everyone in a bid to reach our target of £5000. Most of the money we raise will go to support two local organisations that help to pick up the pieces when people suffer from the fall-out from Covid. Carers Resource supports those who devote their lives to caring for a close friend or family member. Wellspring offers a mental health counselling service, giving advice, offering support and helping to make a real difference to countless lives. These are charities whose work is needed now as never before and this is why we are defying the years by walking and climbing.

Follow our virtual progress here or on our Facebook and Twitter pages

(@ HarrogateBrigantesRotaryClub; @Harrogate_BrigantesRC).