Earlier this week, we headed down to Cheddar, Somerset to handover a giant £2,000 cheque to Eddy Hicks, the winner of the Kilimanjaro category in the 2014 Charity Challenge competition.
We met Eddy at our Cheddar Garden Centre store – situated just minutes from the beautiful Cheddar Gorge – along with Claire Dibben from Weston Hospicecare. A number of Eddy’s fellow Ramblers also came to support him.
Eddy climbed Mount Kilimanjaro which, at 5885m (19,340′), is Africa’s highest mountain, as a tribute to Kathy Ellis, who died in at the end of May following a battle with cancer, aged 62. Before being struck down by the disease, Kathy had been very active as Secretary and walk leader for the local Ramblers group, a frequent participant in English Country Dancing events, both locally and further afield, where she had started to call dances, member of the Blagdon W.I., and leader and tutor of the Blagdon Handbell Ringers.
Eddy fundraised for Weston Hospicecare in recognition of their “wonderfully sensitive and compassionate care of Kathy in her last painful weeks”. His training included a trek of 15-18 miles each Sunday in hill country, with an early morning walk up the local hills for an hour or so.
Eddy said, “It really was a tremendous boost to hear, a couple of days after I returned from what had been a very arduous ascent and return journey, that I had won the Kilimanjaro section of the Mountain Warehouse Charity Challenge.
It augmented to over £6,000 the sponsorship money I was able to pass over to Weston Hospicecare as a tribute to Kathy for the wonderfully sensitive care they afforded her in her final weeks in the Hospice, and which they extended to all her family members and friends when they came to visit.
I felt a great sense of pride and satisfaction that I had been able to contribute in this way to the continuance of the invaluable service Weston Hospicecare provide within the local community.”
A huge well done to Eddy on his fantastic achievement!