Friends to scale heights for kids (From thisisoxfordshire)

Friends to scale heights for kids

4:29pm Friday 10th July 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

A pair of paediatric physiotherapists have set their sights on scaling three British peaks in just 24 hours.

Friends Helen Douglas, 27, and Mel White, 28, both from Cowley, Oxford, hope to raise £10,000 to send poorly children on a trip of a lifetime by climbing the three highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales — Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon — in a day.

The feat is the equivalent of scaling Nelson’s Column in London, more than 68 times.

The friends want to raise cash for charity Dreamflight, which sends children with serious illnesses and disabilities to Disney World in Florida. Ms Douglas, who works at the Oxford Children’s Hospital, has volunteered at the charity for the past four years and Ms White has helped for two years.

Ms White, who works at Witney Community Hospital, said: “We haven’t done any climbing like this before. We have both done runs and things for charity but it’s the first challenge we have done.

“We have got £3,000 for Dreamflight, but we are really trying to push to get some more.”

The physios have been training by going on long and hilly walks for the past few months.

Ms White said: “Dreamflight is just an amazing charity and it has benefited a lot of Oxfordshire children.

“We will be taking a couple of kids from Oxfordshire in October.

“The idea is to give them a holiday of a lifetime. Some of them are permanently ill and have long-term problems. It means they have 10 days without their parents, having fun and not thinking about their medicine.

“But there will be a full medical team– we will take a doctor in each group and a nursing team and a physio – so it means they have a medical team but they also have a lot of fun.”

To find out more about the charity, visit dreamflight.

org or to sponsor the physios visit justgiving.com/ dreamflight3peaks

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)