Movember 2021 – Feeling On Top Of The World

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I have been raising funds for and awareness of men’s health issues for 9 years with Movember UK.  In the last 2 years, the covid years, I have had the honour of enlisting the support of men in Northwich through my gym with Paul Connor and Northwich Round Table.

In 2020 together we had Rowvember where we indoor rowed and ran more than the Land’s End to John O’Groats distance, 1,500,000m and raised almost £6,000.  It helped us all with the lockdown and gave us a purpose to build up our kilometres together, virtually.

Inspired by that success we wanted another challenge for 2021.  FEELING TOP OF THE WORLD – Individually virtually climbing the equivalent of Everest as a month-long goal.  As part of the Everest challenge, we included a standalone real climb team activity goal of climbing Snowdon.  Paul Connor raised the bar and challenged us to carry weights up and down.

The team rose to the challenge and 10 of us climbed Snowdon with around 15kgs each in our backpacks.  The weight had a significance for Movember – it was to be in total at least 130kg which is the total weight of the prostates (11g average) of the men who die each year from prostate cancer.  That is 11,190 men that die each year from treatable cancer.

We all had our different motivations – one team member shared “My motivation is that I’ve always wanted to climb Mount Snowdon but more so ever since my wife was diagnosed with incurable blood cancer and my brother with testicular cancer. I also know family members and friends who have prostate cancer so this trek was in honour of them.”

The climb was spectacular, we climbed the Pyg Track and descended the Llanberis path.  The weather was as good as we could have hoped for and visibility was great.  We had a very special remembrance service at the summit “For me, the best bit of the hike was getting to the summit 5 minutes before 11 am on Remembrance Sunday and witnessing an emotional tribute and 1-minute silence on the top of Mount Snowdon above the clouds” said Amit.

Prosecco, thanks to Ben, and samosas, thanks to Amit’s wife, were consumed at the top to fuel our descent.

We raised a huge amount of money again, and it is still coming in.  The last count, we were at £3,650 raised for Movember and a further £2,319 for Macmillan Cancer Support.  In total it will be another £6,000 raised from a small group of men.  Thanks to my company APC Cardiovascular Ltd too as it matched funding to a pledge of £500 per fundraiser, a total contribution of £1,000 this year.

It is amazing what we can do when we have a challenge, and we gang together as a team.

Thank you to all our sponsors and of course the team:

  • Amit Patel
  • Andy Firth
  • Ben Flynn
  • Ed Jackson
  • Glyn Knight
  • James McEwen
  • Kris Ellis
  • Matt Westmoreland
  • Paul Connor
  • Wayne Hasselby

In 2022 I hope to be a Sports Ambassador for Movember and we aim to raise more money and awareness for this fantastic charity that helps men’s physical and mental health issues.

If you would still like to Donate click here.