Every year the great and good people of the Licensing Industry step forward and pledge their valued time and resource to help support The Light Fund with increasingly bizarre and exhilarating challenges that have to date raised over £2M for charity!

The latest fundraiser for 2025 is a bold challenge to have mass participation climbing Mount Snowdon, with a large group taking on the 3 Peaks Challenge and some absolute nutters taking on the gruelling 5 Peaks Challenge

The trek takes place in September 2025 and includes ascents of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Snowdon, Carrauntoohil, and Slieve Donard over 5 days.

Sponsorship money all goes directly to The Light Fund, which distributes funds to charities at the end of each year. A proportion of the 5-3-1 Peaks Challenge money will be going to the England & Wales Mountain Rescue charity.

I’m one of the people taking on all 5 peaks. Individually the distances don’t sound too bad, then you add in the ascent/ decent plus the fact a lot of it is done in the dark, and you do one after the other sleeping in a minibus and actually it feels rather daunting! So any and all support will be hugely appreciated.

Between January and March I clocked up 450km, in readiness for my "warm-up" challenge of an ultra hike of 108km round the coastline of the Isle of Wight at the start of May. (It ended up being 111km, those extra kms felt hard!)

Since May I’ve kept the monthly distance up, heading out on walks and hikes whenever and wherever I have been, in all weathers and odd times of day.

Despite the training I have no doubt it’s going to be a tough challenge, mentally and physically, and all donations will help with the motivation during the challenge.

Big hugs and huge thanks in advance for listening to me talk about walking and hiking all year!

Nicola x