I am taking on the South Wales Three Peaks Trial - a 20-mile hiking challenge, climbing three peaks around the town of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire with a combined climb of around 1,500 metres... the equivalent of ascending Ben Nevis.

I regularly hike as a past-time, and have previously done a number of virtual challenges at my own pace for a personal sense of achievement - but this will be the first time I will have entered and participated in an organised hiking event. I have climbed each of the peaks individually in the past - but not all three in one go!

Charities

I am doing this challenge to raise funds and awareness for two causes - ShowerBox, and S.C.A.H. (Solihull Churches Action on Homelessness).

Over the past few years I've seen first-hand, and spoken with, a number of people who are homeless in my local area, and felt moved to help them in some way - whilst I can give them a bit of my time, some money, or buy them some food and drink, I'm not currently in a position myself to be able to do more than that; but I can use my capabilities in other ways to support charities on the ground that can and do do more.

ShowerBox (https://showerbox.org/) is a charity that - via a custom-built vehicle - provide showers, clean clothing etc to support the health and wellbeing of the street and hidden homeless in London. Recently a friend from my church has been working with ShowerBox to provide a second vehicle for the Birmingham area - which is how I came to know about the charity.

S.C.A.H. (https://www.scah.org.uk/) is a charity local to the Solihull area which - by working with a network of various local government and social services, housing associations and other charities - aims to help the homeless, and/or those on the verge of becoming homeless, by supporting them and helping them through their current situation and providing 'starter packs', containing the essentials for everyday life once they have (new) accommodation.

*Important Fundraising Info

If you would like to support me in my attempt to complete the South Wales Three Peaks Trial for these good causes, first of all - thank you!

To note - S.C.A.H. are not registered with Justgiving - so I will be aiming to raise at least £750 (updated from £500!) for ShowerBox through this Justgiving page; and then for every £1 that is raised for ShowerBox, I am pledging to personally give 50p to S.C.A.H. up to the target value of £375. If instead you would like to donate directly to S.C.A.H. you can do that too via their donate page - https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/10065#!/DonationDetails.