UPDATE - Alice completed the 3000ers on Friday 5th September in 10 hours 20 minutes, peak to peak! See end for details..

UPDATE - 29th attempt, Alice and Ali going on Friday 5th September. Details at end.

UPDATE - It's go for Friday 29th now! Details at the end..

UPDATE - we're attempting the Welsh 3000ers on Thursday 28th August, see the end of this story for full details....

The day after his son's first birthday our son-in law Elliot was diagnosed with a brain tumour, a Glioblastoma grade IV. Please help us raise money to fight this dreadful disease.

Glioblastoma brain cancers are rare and they get less than 1% of the money that goes into cancer research overall, but they are currently incurable and most people will know of at least one person who has had this awful diagnosis.

We're raising funds to help Elliot directly and also to support the work of Brain Tumour Research (www.braintumourresearch.org).

What we're doing

There are 15 peaks over 3,000 feet in Snowdonia, covering about 28 miles and more than 3,100 metres of ascent across three mountain ranges. To complete the Welsh 3000ers Challenge, you have to summit all 15 in under 24 hours; and no transport is allowed. And that doesn't include getting to the first summit (Snowdon) and off the last (Foel Fras), overall it's over 30 miles and about 4000m of ascent and descent.

That's more than a marathon but with 15 mountains on the way.

A group of family and friends are planning an attempt in August 2025, there'll be an old man (that's me, James, I'm 66 this year), a couple of marathon runners new to climbing mountains (Matt and Clemi), a couple of super fit climbers (Alice and Ali) and perhaps some others if we can persuade them!

How many of us will finish? How fast can we do it in? Give us some motivation, every step is for a truly urgent cause.

About Elliot and his tumour

Elliot is married to our lovely daughter, Jess. Just a year ago, they welcomed their first child, our wonderful grandson, Aein.

But a few months ago, everything changed. Just after Aein’s first birthday, Elliot was diagnosed with a Grade IV primary glioblastoma, a rare and extremely aggressive brain tumour.

Glioblastomas are incurable, grow fast and invade healthy brain tissue, making them very difficult to remove - current treatments focus on slowing or stopping tumour growth to prolong life for as long as possible.

There is hope.

Thanks to breakthroughs in personalised medicine, new treatments are emerging all the time. AI is accelerating the pace of medical research, and if we can buy Elliot enough time, these breakthroughs could well arrive soon enough to make a real difference.

How You Can Help

Despite the amazing care Eliott's getting from his NHS team, the standard NHS treatment hasn’t changed for 20 years. Fortunately, international centres are now offering promising approaches and new clinical trials are starting all the time, leading to many long-term survivors living relatively normal lives.

But these are not yet available on the NHS. Friends and family, are helping where they can, but the truth is, Eliott can’t do this without your help.

Half of what you give will go directly to Elliot’s treatment fund, to help pay for advanced, individualised therapies not available on the NHS.

The other half will be donated to Brain Tumour Research (www.braintumourresearch.org), to support long-term advances for everyone affected by this disease.

Why?

You’ll be helping give Elliot a real chance to watch his son grow up, to walk beside Jess through the life they dreamed of, and to fight this disease not just for him, but for every family who hears the terrible words “brain tumour”.

If you’re able to contribute, no matter the amount, it means everything to us. Each and every donation – even if it’s the price of a pint or a coffee - brings Elliot a real chance to watch his son grow up and to walk beside Jess through the life they built together.

Even if you can’t afford to spare anything, you can help just by sharing this page.

THANK YOU

Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for being part of this journey.

The attempt

 Welsh 3000s Challenge is GO on Thursday 28th August!

Matt and James (walking) are spending Wednesday night on the summit of Snowdon, leaving at about 4:00am on Thursday and hoping to finish 6:00 - 8:00pm.

Alice and Ali (running) start at 4:00am from Pen Y Pass and are climbing Snowdon first, adding another 800m of ascent to the day, they'll be doing the first 3 peaks in reverse (Crib Goch -> Garnedd Ugain -> Snowdon). They should catch up/overtake Matt and James somewhere around Elidir Fawr and should finish several hours earlier..

Here's some idea of what we're attempting (pictures taken 17th August on a training walk over the Glyders).

The weather was against us for Plan A...

We can do rain, or wind, or thick hill fog but not all three at the same time!

James and Matt are going Friday 29th first thing, Alice and Alex are working nights, and are hoping to go on 5th September (TBC).

It's very wet and windy on Snowdon on Thurs eve, so we've decided not to camp, instead we're going to climb Snowdon at about 4:00am and set off immediately. Weather is blustery showers, 25-35 mph winds so it should be fun! Hopefully we'll be summiting Foel Fras 14-16 hours later, more updates then!

UPDATE 30th August

Thank you

Firstly, thank you all SO much for your generous donations, this is going to make a real difference to Elliot’s treatment options and a signifiant contribution to the Brain Tumour Trust, benefiting other current and future suffers of this awful condition.

The 3000ers challenge is far from over...

Alice and Ali are going on Friday 5th September

They’ve been training for months now and are hoping to run most of it, please give them your support! Both are carrying long term injuries and the effort they’ve been putting in is incredible. Neither have run this far over mountains before.

James and Matt climbed 4 mountains with nearly 2000m of elevation and over 20km of distance, but the weather and illness forced a retreat

James and Matt had to bail from the summit of Elidir Fawr, having climbed Snowdon at 4:00 am in the dark, rain, wind and mist, arriving at the summit wet, cold and tired just after dawn, nearly an hour later than planned.

They reached the summit of Garnedd Ugain after only 18 minutes, but in the rain, wind and mist Crib Goch was very slippery and dangerous (there are frequent casualties here), so the Snowdon section took 3 hours instead of the 2 hours it takes in perfect weather.

The climb up Elidir Fawr proved the final straw - James had started out with a sore throat and tickly cough, this was getting worse and his speed declined as the virus kicked in, taking nearly 3 hours to reach the summit instead of the expected 2.

Being 3 hours behind schedule and with the risk of a serious chest infection the only sensible thing to do was descend and live to try another day.

Alice completed the 3000ers on Friday 5th September in 10 hours 20 minutes, peak to peak!

She did the whole route valley to valley in 12 hours 17 minutes, running over 30 miles (50k) on the roughest terrain with more than 12,500 feet of ascent (4000m).

Alice and Ali set off from Pen y Pas car park at 5:00 am and by 7:00 am were on the summit of Snowdon, having climbed Crib Goch and Carnedd Ugain in the dark on the way (3 down, 12 to go).

By 9:45 they had climbed Elidir Fawr and were on their way to Y Garn, unfortunately Ali's old knee injury flared up and he had to bail at 10:30, joining the party meeting Alice in the Ogwen valley.

Alice carried on alone, summiting Glyder Fawr then Glyder Fach, reaching the top of Tryfan at 12:10 (8 down, 7 to go).

Ella and Grace met Alice in Ogwen valley just 40 minutes later, and the three of them set off for the final push. The haul up Pen yr Ole Wen is a notorious "bonk" spot for people attempting the 3000ers, many hit the wall part way up, but Alice's diet of salted boiled potatoes paid dividends.

Over Daffydd, yr Elen, Llewelyn, Foel Grach and Garnedd Uchaf, the three reached the summit of Foel Fras at 16:20, 10 hours and 20 minutes after Alice had summited Crib Goch.

Alice had never run this distance before, her longest training sessions weren't even half the total, it took considerable mental fortitude as well as physical fitness to "dig deep" and get to the end, what a legend!!

Anyone who has completed or attempted the 3000ers will know that 10 hours 20 is a seriously fast time for anyone who isn't a dedicated competitive fell runner; 16 hours is considered respectable and many fail to even finish.

PS James and Matt are STILL planning to go again in the Spring, we'll need 16 hours of daylight (and we have a lot of training to do!)