Frontline NHS carers in Badenoch and Strathspey conquer their mountains

A “whirlwind” 28-day fundraiser involving members of the frontline NHS care-at-home service in the strath has raised more than triple its initial target.

Raigmore Hospital’s RNI Community Hospital Covid-19 fight and efforts to combat the virus in Badenoch and Strathspey will receive more than £3000 thanks to the staircase fundraiser.

The carers set out to ‘climb’ Ben Nevis, The Four Peaks (Ben Nevis, Snowdon, Slieve Donard and Scafell Pike) or even Kilimanjaro over a month at home but there have since scaled Africa’s highest peak in the equivalent of four times between them in vertical metres.

The B&S C@H Climbing Challenge featured in the Strathy captured the public imagination in a way the team climbing their stairs could not ever have imagined.“It’s been a whirlwind!” said one of the organisers, Louise Ormston. “My knees are now suffering but it’s been such a great way to keep our morale up!

“We’ve become closer as not only a team but as friends.

“We began this journey with our aim being to keep our morale within our Care at Home team high and whilst doing so, we hoped to raise £1000 as we completed our challenges.

“Little did we know that along the way, we would be gaining momentum with not only our group daily challenge to complete our stairs but that our idea to introduce a daily theme would mean we would also be gaining a following through our Facebook Group Challenge page!”

Mrs Ormston explained: “To begin with the ‘dressing up’ was not something most of us were very keen to do but as the days went by, the costumes became more elaborate and there were even some in house collaborations.

“We have discovered that with the right motivation, even the most shy of our group were willing to dress up as zombies or in 1980s keep-fit gear.

“We have been cleaning ladies, gone undercover in combat gear, become twitchers and even become teenagers again, all to entertain and get people to donate.”

The group’s exploits have been followed on social media: “We created a group to enable us to reach as many local people as possible, with the aim being to gain some donations – we did not, however, expect to become a daily source of entertainment.

“We have been receiving such amazing comments and support. The daily videos and photos of us dressing up and making fools of ourselves, like this pair in the video loosening up with some improvised aerobics, seems to have become a fundamental part of our challenge.

“We have had people calling out to us when we have been out and about working within the local communities, asking ‘what are we doing today’?

“People have been sending us messages saying that we have been entertaining them and making folk laugh!

“What an amazing thing for our group of carers to hear!

“This has given us such a boost, as by the halfway mark, our knees were hurting, our legs aching and quite honestly, we often felt we had bitten off more than some of us could chew.”

The NHS carers reached their £1000 target within days only to raise the bar to £2000.

Mrs Ormston said: “If we are honest, we felt would be a miracle to achieve. Little did we know that our amazing supporters would pull it out of the bag and we have actually now gone past £3000.”

She stressed: “We are all so grateful to our supporters and Facebook followers as without them, this would not have been possible. With their daily encouragement we have pushed ourselves both physically and mentally.

“By day 28 the carers had completed the summits of Kilimanjaro four times, Ben Nevis 10 times and the Four Peaks three times combined – a lot of stairs!

“We look forward to handing over the money to Badenoch and Strathspey Community Transport Company’s Where 2 Today and to Raigmore Hospital’s RNI Community Hospital.”

Team member Fiona Mackenzie, of Cromdale, came up with the idea of a climbing challenge, so that each of the team could do something daily either within their homes or during their one-hour exercise time allotment.

The Strathy is delighted to carry a “big thank-you” from fundraisers Fiona, Louise and fellow stair climbers Maria McIntosh, Jane McAdam, Gillian Foster, Esther Cumming, Maureen Cadden, Monika Svidekova, Lesley Moore, Renata Smolarz, Beata Harper and Geraldine Craig.

More details at https://www.gofundme.com/f/bamps-ch-climbing-challenge?

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