Lee Larter

Last week I completed the Three Peaks over 3 days fundraising for @BrainTumourOrg in memory of our son Joe who we lost to a brain tumour 6 years ago aged 26. The idea was to do it solo, driving myself and taking an ironing board, iron and charity t-shirt up each peak, ironing the t-shirt on the top. I will admit to being a bit worried about what people might thing of some weird bloke carrying an ironing board but I could not have been more wrong. What started as a charity fundraiser was very much a life affirming three days for me. In amongst all the political noise and all the social media hype and angst there really are some lovely, kind people out there. All sorts of them spoke to me, wished me luck, asked what I was doing and were fascinated by the whole extreme ironing idea (Google it!). Many shared their own experiences of friends and family with brain tumour diagnoses. Some gave me cash or scanned the QR code linked to my JustGiving page, overall I raised over £300 on the walks alone. On Ben Nevis I met Paul who had lost a friend to a brain tumour and Rich who was helping a friend who had failed to reach the summit on his last attempt but made it this time. A couple of lads from Glasgow were videoing me videoing myself ironing my t-shirt and promised to "put it on ma insta". On Scafell Pike I was joined by an old friend of 40 plus years who happened to be solo walking in the lakes that week and we met The Wasdale Womble (aka Lindsay) who litter picks up and down the fells and does Scafell Pike hundreds of times a year. We met Yanni and Mary & Richard who gave us donations and best wishes. Also a shout out to two very hungover Port Vale fans who were using the climb as a hangover cure, fair play boys. On Snowdon I met Welsh Spiderman (aka Dylan's charity walk of Yr Wyddfa) who fundraises for various local causes and was on his 90+ ascent of the year bringing smiles to many faces and who joined me for part of the walk. Caroline who thrust some cash in my hand while I was queuing for an ice cream and wished me luck and the lady who helped to video my ironing who had lost a friend 2 years ago to a brain tumour. On Ben Nevis I had also recorded a video for the wonderful people at @DellTechUK who have been fundraising for us this year and they showed it on an all hands call while I was up Snowdon with the QR code and raised almost £1,000 in just a few minutes. All in all we have raised over £4,000 with Gift Aid so far and hopefully spread the message about brain tumours which are the biggest cancer killer of the under 40s and very much an underfunded cancer. If you able to donate the link to my fundraising page is: justgiving.com/page/richards… and please like and share this post for reach.

Beautiful walk up to Rivington Pike today and my last full kit check before my Three Peaks Challenge, raising funds for @BrainTumourOrg in memory of our son Joe, next week. I will doing the three peaks, Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), one a day for three days solo, but with the added challenge of taking an iron and ironing board to the summit of each and ironing a charity t-shirt at the top. Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killers of the under 40's and we lost Joe 6 years ago when he was just 26. If you can help us to raise funds to fight this underfunded and underrepresented disease please visit our fundraising page here: justgiving.com/page/richards… I was reminded that Joe and I did this walk over 10 years ago and I have included a picture from that day below. It was lovely to spend the whole day with him walking in the hills and and poignant one to think about today. If you do nothing else with this post please make yourself aware of the signs and symptoms of a brain tumour by visiting the charity's better safe than tumour microsite here: bettersafethantumour.com/ it may help you or a loved one to get that vital early diagnosis.