Louise's Three Peaks Challenge

We have opened this page in memory of the much missed Louise McVaddy and Baby Michael who we never got to meet. Louise and Michael passed away on the 12th June 2010.

Louise was aged thirty, 32 weeks pregnant,  very healthy and blooming when she suddenly became very ill. Louise was taken from us in a matter of five hours because her blood pressure and blood sugar were so high her body could not cope with it.  The cause of this extreme situation was an adrenal tumour. Louise had no warning signs or symptom's to this very rare condition.

Louise was always encouraging me (Regan, her Husband) to get involved in sporting events. On my quest to get fit in 2010, three friends, myself, Dan and Rick challenged each other to nominate an event each that all of us would take part in. I called the Tough Guy Challenge on the 30th January 2010, followed by Rick who chose the Eastbourne Half Marathon in March 2010. Then it was Dan's turn to call a challenge. Dan discussed quite a few different options but could not make up his mind.

One evening Lou and I were indoors talking about why Dan still had not come up with a challenge, when Louise suggested The Three Peaks Challenge.  My first reaction was "No chance", there was no way I thought that I was fit enough to complete this challenge.  However, I said if you can convince Dan then I am in!  Lou phoned him straight away and Dan, obviously very daunted by this massive challenge, tried every which way to get out of it.

As persuasive as Lou was she could not get Dan to agree.  A few months passed and nothing more was said. Then before you knew it, it was June12th the day that the bombshell hit and my beautiful wife passed away.

In the days after this I stayed with Louise's family.  Many of you reading this will be some of the friends and family who came to the house and as you know people did not stop coming, mostly with bottles of Jack Daniels and food.  It was very comforting for me and Louise’s family to see so many people turn up out of respect to Louise and Michael.

On one of these days Dan arrived at the house and laid down the gauntlet!  He announced that he wanted to take on The Three Peaks Challenge in memory of Louise as she had called it.  Almost immediately a number of people signed up to the challenge and things soon escalated to the large number of competitors that have now joined our cause.  We set the date to finish on 28th June, my birthday, and we will be staying at a family retreat in North Wales close to Snowdon on the 29th, the anniversary of the day the funeral.  This has given everyone involved something good to focus on and will definitely give us an excuse to get fit.

We will be splitting the group into teams of six (two drivers/ navigators and four walkers).  The thing about completing The Three Peaks Challenge is that it is a team effort, with drivers being just as important as the walkers, and with such a large group completing this it will be a real achievement that I am sure Louise would be proud of.

We are raising money that will go directly to research into adrenal tumours.  We are raising money for an organisation called Ens@t.  Because the registered office for Ens@t is in Paris we are donating to them via the Claire Khan Trust, which is administered by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Charity (Birmingham).  The Claire Khan Trust (Fund Number 12-3-187) was set up by the mother of Claire Khan who also lost her life to an adrenal tumour and you can read her story and find out more about Ens@t and the work they do at www.ens@t.org. 

Because adrenal tumours are rare, progress with regard to their diagnosis and treatment can only be achieved by combining the efforts of researchers and clinicians from several countries.  To overcome these difficulties and to ensure that significant process is made, an European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumours was created.  This is Ens@t.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

The family have already been helped by some of these specialists and it is a cause very dear to their hearts. What a great thing if in the future we had been able to assist in some way into research into the condition and this had resulted in progress of early detection and treatment.

Rachel and Sean Bennetts have also been raising money for Ens@t in memory of Louise by taking on the massive challenge of climbing Kilimanjaro which they expect to conquer on 12th June 2011 the anniversary of Louise and Michael’s death. Rachel has in fact been instrumental in finding this network of specialists and Charity.

So please give generously to this good cause on behalf of all the brave Three Peaks Challengers who are listed below!