We want to thank Helen, Lindey and Sarah for taking on the huge challenge of scaling the 24 peaks in the Lake District over 2 days to raise vital funds for Shropshire Mental Health Support.
Helen’s son Stephen, took his own life in early January 2020, just one week after his 24th Birthday. He had been battling with depression since the age of 18, but for much of that time, he managed to keep the severity of his suffering under wraps from most people.
Helen says, in our eyes and the eyes of all that knew him, he was larger than life; intelligent, kind, funny, intuitive. His mission in life was to make everyone happy, to make everyone feel accepted and special, even though he struggled so dreadfully with depression himself.
During a particularly bad time in November 2019, we sought help from MHS Shropshire, a charity that offers support to people and their families suffering the effects of mental and emotional distress. They offered us a safe place to talk at their centre in Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury and, although the trained volunteer couldn’t give direct psychiatric help, they offered kindness and an ear and were able to recommend organisations that could help further. This was a lifeline not only for Stephen, but also for myself, as living with someone who is suffering in this way makes you feel very isolated and scared.
On completing the challenge Helen reported,
The idea to tackle the 24 Peaks Challenge was born from completing the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge last year. We realised we liked walking, but also how punishing and challenging it can be to be on the old legs for hours on end; the ascents are a challenge for obvious reasons, especially the ones where we were not walking, but rock climbing! The descents take their toll differently, using different muscles and requiring so much concentration on the steep descents, especially through the more rocky and screezy ones.
But we’ve done it and we’re three happy ladies!
Keep your eyes peeled, as we’ll be posting soon on how much we’ve managed to raise for
MHS Shropshire 
Thanks again to our families and friends who have supported us through all this and to all those who have donated. Thank you also to Tony Holliday from Activus Outdoors Group and our wonderful guide, the very knowledgeable Berni, who was amazing and was quite literally a walking mountain encyclopaedia. Lastly, a massive thank you to my Mr M, aka
Dave Mellor, who has been my rock and supported me through all this and who gave me free rein in DMC to do my cake sales and Raffle.
