Heavy rain fails to dampen women’s charity challenge
Two intrepid women braved ‘horrendous’ weather to raise money for a defibrillator at their local cricket club.
In almost permanent rain, Alyson Taylor and Joanne Crosby took up the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge.
Generous sponsorship generated the £1,800 needed to buy the device and its box, which is now mounted on a wall at Seaham Harbour Cricket Club.
The challenge takes on the peaks of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough in under 12 hours – all three peaks are well over 2,000 ft.
Initially Alyson, a support tutor at East Durham College and Joanne, an NVQ tutor, were just going to take up the challenge for their own personal achievement. But then they realised they could turn it into a good cause.
They were partly inspired by the incident at Euro 2020, when Denmark football ercardiac arrest aged just 29. This brought home the fact that it can happen to people at any age and fitness level.
The age range of players in the cricket club’s various teams is from seven up to those in their 50s. Theys 18 year-old son Niall.
Although Alyson and Joanne can be proud of their achievement, they probably won’t be doing it again any time soon.
Joanne said :“It was horrendous. The weather was just awful. It chucked it down for hours and hours. Nothing had prepared us. We talked about stopping and just giving the money back between us! But we’ve raised the money and it was a relief to finish.
“Originally we were just going to do the three peaks for ourselves; not for any sponsorshipor charity. But the cricket club is also our local. Our family and friends go there. So we thought we might as well raise some money.
“Hopefully we’ll never need to use the defibrillator, but at least it’ s there. We might save someone’s life, even if we’re not there.
“We were thinking maybe a couple of hundred pounds. But then we set up a Just Giving page and raised over £1,700. We got one anonymous donation of £200. They didn’t want recognition, they just wanted to donate because they thought it was a good cause.
“We’d like to thank everyone who donated very much. That’s what got us through to the end.”