Members of a Saffron Walden fitness studio took on an epic endurance challenge to help children with brain tumours.
The Way Of Life Fitness (WOLF) studio team, led by founder Steve Larsen, have been fundraising for children's brain tumour charity Tom's Trust by pushing 100kg of sled weight the collective distance of the 10 highest peaks on earth - a total of 83,782 metres.
They completed the challenge to honour Tom's Trust children and families - who must scale their own monumental psychological mountains after receiving the life-changing diagnosis of a brain tumour.
WOLF founder Steve said: "We wanted to support Tom’s Trust because it felt like something that was closer to home for us than the usual big charities.
"We have members personally affected by childhood brain tumours, so it was a perfect fit.
"We had 100 WOLF pack members get involved. This challenge allowed us to engage absolutely everyone in our team no matter how long they’d been training with us or how fit they were.
"The challenge was a real test of endurance but also of patience. There was no way we could get all that work done quickly so we just had to focus on doing a little bit every day.
"This could easily get boring but remembering what a good cause we were doing this for helped us to push through."
So far the team has raised more than £1,300, and you can donate to support them at https://www.justgiving.com/page/wolfpacksled.
Tom's Trust was founded by Debs Mitchell and Andrew Whiteley in honour of their son Tom, who died from a brain tumour aged nine in 2010.
READ MORE
- Open weekend on proposed development at Saffron Walden almshouses
- Saffron Walden Initiative members visit Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge
The family received little mental health support as they navigated his terminal diagnosis, and are determined that no other family should face what they experienced alone.
Tom's Trust now provides mental health, wellbeing and psychological support to 536 children and young people aged 0-19, and their families (around 1,608 additional family members) across the UK.
Approximately 600 children under the age of 19 are diagnosed with a brain tumour each year, with brain tumours representing a third of all childhood cancer deaths.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here