Staff from North East property and energy firm the Banks Group are preparing for the ups and downs of a daunting physical challenge which will help them raise money for a regional cancer charity.
Employees at the Durham-headquartered, family-owned firm chose Bright Red, which supports people across the north of England who are dealing with a wide range of blood cancers, such as leukaemias, lymphomas and myelomas, as well as other less common conditions, as their dedicated charity for 2018.
And alongside the fundraising dress down days, raffles and cake bakes that are already taking place across the company’s different businesses and locations, a 12-strong staff team has now signed up to take on the Three Peaks Challenge, which involves climbing the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales within a 24-hour period.
The Challenge will see the team travel from Durham to Fort William before starting their ascent of Ben Nevis early the next morning. Once down from the summit, the team will then head for Scafell Pike in the Lake District before completing the challenge by conquering Snowdonia in North Wales.
The participants have varying degrees of hill-walking and endurance event experience, ranging from complete novices through to others who have completed the London Marathon and reached the summit of Kilimanjaro.
An initial training expedition up Helvellyn in the Lakes has been completed to kick off the team’s training programme, and sponsorship is already being gathered to add to the overall pot, which currently sits at around £1,000.
Bright Red was nominated by David Wilson, a member of Banks’ ICT team who was diagnosed with multiple myelomas in 2014. He was subsequently treated at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, where Bright Red is headquartered, received two successful bone marrow transplants in 2015 and is now in clinical remission.
Lewis Stokes, community relations manager at The Banks Group, who has put the team together, says: “The Three Peaks Challenge is the centrepiece of our fundraising for Bright Red this year, and while it will be hard work to complete it, we’re already starting our preparations to give ourselves the best chance of success.
“Bright Red has a positive impact on people around our region who are facing extremely tough situations, and we’re glad to be backing their work towards providing the best possible treatment environments for patients with blood cancers and their families.”
For more information on Bright Red, please visit www.brightred.org.uk or follow @BrightRedOrg on Twitter.
