Even though none of us technically finished the Challenge, having been turned around on Scafell Pike, we all still deserved a large celebration on finishing Ben Nevis, and that is what we got! Starting at 10pm - to give the people that summited Ben Nevis enough time to shower, etc. - we had a banquet, followed by celebratory drinks in the hotel's bar. It was great to get to get to talk to people in a slightly less stressful setting. Everyone had a blast, at least from what I could tell!
One thing that I unfortunately had not had time to think about during the climbing stage of the Three Peaks were the T-shirts that I had made specially for the event.
Both shirts were for Tom, the son of fellow IgoUgo member JayBroek, who had meningitis last year at the age of 20 months, which left him profoundly deaf. Since then, Tom has had two cochlear implants and is doing much better, and you can read about his progress at MySonTom.com, a great blog written by Jay. I remembered reading the blog in the early days of Tom’s illness, and wishing that I could do anything to help the family during such a hard time; I had since raised money for the Meningitis Trust, who had helped the family immensely, but I wanted to do something special for Tom. I had intended on wearing one shirt, which I had decorated to say "In Support of Tom, The Meningitis Trust Three Peaks Challenge, May 18, 19 & 20, 2007," on the top of each of the peaks. This didn’t quite work out, since attempting to take my jacket off at the top of Snowdon would have probably sent it flying over the edge and into the lakes thousands of feet below. Plus, it was freezing. We didn’t make it to the top of Scafell, and while I could have gotten a picture where we stopped and turned around, I honestly just flat forgot, being rather exhausted by that point. In hindsight, I should have given both the shirt and the pebble of support to my friends in the first group on Nevis, to get pictures in the blizzard at the top, but again, it just wasn’t something I thought about, since apparently no sleep + climbing mountains = addled brains!
The other shirt was a smaller shirt, which was much closer to Tom’s size. This shirt, on which was written "For Tom, The Meningitis Trust Three Peaks Challenge, May 2007" went in my backpack up each of the mountains as well. This shirt is the one that I pulled out during our banquet. To my five friends at the table, I explained what had happened to Tom and how I wanted to get everyone to sign the shirt so I could send it to him as a memento of the climb.
Everyone’s eyes lit up as I passed the shirt around the table. They all really cared about how Tom was doing now and were happy to hear of his progress as they carefully tried to sign the T-shirt with my fabric pen. Although everyone had had their own reasons for the climb, I like to think that they enjoyed hearing about a specific person that they had helped so much by raising money for the Meningitis Trust.
I can’t explain how happy it made me feel to see everyone signing the shirt. It really sent shivers up my spine to see all the joy people took in signing it, knowing how much it would mean to a little boy and his family who had gone through so much. I tried to find as many people as possible on the climb to sign it. Of course, some people had already retired to bed or otherwise disappeared, but I think I got at least forty of the sixty or so climbers and support staff to sign it.
It made me even happier to find out, after my long flight back to Houston, that Jay, Nik, and Tom had finally received their package. Again, I couldn’t stop smiling as I read this and saw how much my actions had touched them. I had finally, more than a year after first reading the blog, been able to help their family in my own little way.
In the presentation the Meningitis Trust held for us the next day, we were told that each Three Peaks climb (the Meningitis Trust holds three a year) raises over £25,000 for the charity. That's a lot of money, and means that each climber raises an average of £500. I have since received a letter in the mail saying that our climb is now over the £26,000 mark, and we still have two weeks left before we are finished fundraising! Overall, events like this raise half of the Meningitis Trust's £3 million in donations each year. That is a LOT of money, and Steve said that there is no way the Trust could stay afloat without people like us participating in their events.
During the presentation, all of the climbers were given a black Meningitis Trust Three Peaks Challenge T-shirt. Once these and the accompanying certificates - to prove to everyone that we did indeed participate in the Three Peaks -were passed out, we all went outside, where the rain had briefly stopped, to take big group pictures underneath the Ben Nevis Hotel archway. We were a sea of black shirt-wearing people, madly grinning because we were so excited about what we'd done, and more importantly, that it was over and we could now (somewhat) rest our legs!
Now you've read about my experience, why don't you have one of your own? Visit Meningitis-Trust.Org to find out more about the many events the Trust hosts each year. You can participate in their 24-hour Three Peaks, being held in September, or sign up for the Three Peaks next summer. They are always adding more events - and were telling us about the 21 Peaks in 21 Hours they plan to hold in the Lake District next year - and not all of them are hiking in the hills. You can bicycle from London to Paris, for instance. It's only a few hundred miles! I'm considering taking on the Trek New Zealand trip at the beginning of next year, and I am determined to take on the Three Peaks when I find myself in the UK again at the right time. So check their site out and do something crazy. It'll be the experience of a lifetime.