🏔️23rd JULY MONT BLANC UPDATE 🏔️

THANK YOU all for your amazing and wonderfully generous donations for my climb up Mont Blanc... you are so kind to sponsor me, thank you.

Sadly, the heatwave has caused havoc on the mountain, melting glaciers have caused huge rock falls and new crevasses to open up on the routes to the summit. The Italian & French authorities have closed the main routes and our guides can no longer take us up.

BUT... we are doing a different challenge instead. We have decided to do the Tour du Mont Blanc: 170k, over 10,000m of ascent through 7 steep valleys around Mont Blanc in Switzerland, France and Italy. It normally takes 11 days but we are aiming to do it in 4. Slightly worried this might actually be harder than the original plan...!

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My father climbed Mont Blanc 15 years ago to raise money for Willow... and now it is my turn...!

I started training in the Spring and have walked many, many miles - but this trek up to the summit of Mont Blanc will be the hardest physical challenge I have ever attempted. It is also my first ever mountain climb, involving ice-axes, crampons and head torches, and I am heading up from the Italian side (500m longer ascent than from France).

Willow was set up in memory of my wonderful cousin Anna. Anna died of a rare form of cancer aged 31. 

Anna battled her cancer for five years but it was during these years that Anna, our family and friends, experienced some of their most memorable moments together. Her self named ‘Special Days’ became a focus for quality of time and quality of life, providing a welcome distraction from the challenging realities of living with a serious and life-threatening illness and restoring some normality back into all our lives.

Willow has aimed to replicate the benefits of Anna’s ‘Special Days’ by providing similar positive, motivating and uplifting experiences for other seriously ill young adults.

Willow is the only national charity working with seriously ill young adults aged 16 to 40 to fulfil uplifting and unforgettable Special Days. This year Willow hopes to fulfil 1,400 Special Days – a day to anticipate, to share and to remember when happy memories really do count. Sadly for some, it’s a last chance to fulfil a dream with the people that really matter. Thankfully for many more their Special Day is an important opportunity to put much-needed normality back into living.

I am attempting the climb with my partner Matt and a guide, Edoardo. Matt will be raising money for Cambridge Children's Hospital - East Anglia is the only part of England that does not have a dedicated hospital for children.

Please help me get up to the top of Europe's highest mountain and raise lots of money for Willow! Every pound will help!