If anyone would like to do their own fundraising challenge to help raise the profile of Plan B and our message then please do get in touch we would love to help support you.
Tom Manuel
Tom is an old friend from university who I haven’t spoken to in 20 years. He got in touch with me as I was setting up Plan B and offered to do a walk to raise money for us. He was planning to walk the length of Hadrian’s Wall – almost 90 miles over 4 days and wanted to raise awareness of PLBs along the way.
I managed to source a FastFind PLB from McMurdo which was kindly lent to him from the manufacturers and he put it to good use, talking to people he met along the way. Thank you Tom for enduring blisters and heat to help us and for raising over £400 along the way! The first of many Plan B Heroes!
Fasque Castle
Dom was lucky enough to work at the beautiful Fasque Estate in Scotland and he inspired two young lads who lived there to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Dom’s memory and to raise money for Plan B. The boys decided they would like to do this for Dom and put themselves together with some of their school friends through a gruelling climb raising over £1,000.
They began their ascent at midnight and after 9 hours of hard climbing whilst battling altitude sickness, severe cold and exhaustion, they all reached the summit, 5,895m above sea level. One of the parents who climbed with the team said that whilst the climb had been emotional and exhausting, the strength of characters he saw during this epic adventure has impressed him even more than the experience itself. The boys had already completed a gruelling “warm-up” climb of Mt. Meru in Tanzania – 3.5 times higher than Ben Nevis, to help acclimatise themselves to the altitude and conditions only days before the main climb.
Ross Ovens
An old school friend of Dom’s, Ross very kindly offered to challenge himself by riding in the Prudential Ride 100 – 100 miles over a 1 day event.
Ross’ friends and family very generously sponsored Ross to raise over £1,000 for Plan B which was incredible! I think Ross secretly enjoyed himself and is now entered for more long distance cycling races and has well and truly caught the cycling bug! He most definitely earnt this pint at the end of the race cheers Ross!
Ralph Gilbert
Dom had such amazing friends! Ralph got in touch with me about completing om Coast to Coast – Run, Ride & Kayak over 105 miles through the Scottish Highlands. This is his account of how it all went – think he well and truly tested himself! Thank you so much Ralph for putting yourself through it all for Dom and raising over £4,000 – incredible! Maybe enough time has passed now to only remember the good bits!?
“Arrived in Inverness airport on Friday with easyJet losing my luggage at this point I thought there was no chance I could do it without any of my kit so I thought I would just jump on the plane home and do it next year but the flight was full so 4 hours later a trip to Cotswolds, Halfords, Morrisons and John Lewis credit cards maxed out I was fully kitted out again and managed to get bike to drop off point before it closed.
After the stress of that day and probably bricking it for what was ahead I only got a couple of hours sleep. (Never a great sleeper away from home)
We started at 9.30 AM and smashed out the 7 mile run in around 1 hour and onto the 48 mile road cycle 8 miles in my peddle sheared off, I rode for another 2 miles with one peddle then gave up phoned the race marshal who came to pick me up. I was gutted but I knew I had the rest of the day to get replacement parts for the bike and would at least be able to do the second day. As I was getting into the support car there was a man in there who had pulled his hamstring who very kindly lent me his mountain bike so was shortly back on the road on a BMX sized mountain bike!
That night I attempted to sleep at the event campsite at loch Ness which just didn’t happen I got so stressed about it that I ended up being sick losing any dinner I had that night and only getting another 2 hours sleep I will NEVER sleep in a tent again!!!
In the morning I was weak and tied but needed to get day 2 out the way as soon as possible so set off at 7.30 AM to battle the 21 miles off road and 13.5 road cycle, I had managed to hire a more suitable sized bike and found it a lot easier than the day before despite the rain coming down and saddle sore.
Now onto the Trek Trail run around Ben Nevis. Being a finely tuned athlete I thought I would be able to get the 14 miles out in 3 hours that was not to be with the weather being so bad that they had to change the route increasing it by 2 miles taking 4.5 hours and 100 knat bites. We finally got to the Kayaks for a leisurely row to the finish line.
Great experience but never again.”
Colette Lewis & Bev Honey
These girls have known Dom since school and wanted to show their support for Dom’s charity by doing something completely out of their comfort zone. Climbing Ben Nevis! Neither of them had ever done anything like this before and they had to put a lot of thought into planning and training. Unfortunately they had to delay their trip by several months and so it was July 2018 when they made their attempt. The girls planned everything so well and used a local guide to help them. I think the expression on Colette’s face says it all here – they made it to the top but what a mission- I am getting the sense that it is a case of I am glad I have done it but never again! Thank you so much Colette & Bev for raising over £1,000 for Plan B – great friends to Dom.
