600km monsal trail - Fundraising challenge

Six intrepid adventurers from our Starting Blocks partners Baker Mallett completed an amazing 600km cycling and walking challenge in the Peak District over the weekend, raising more than £250 for the Trust.

The group were led by Andrew Harrison, Managing Partner, who came up with the challenge to assist with team building in the Sheffield office where a few new people had started recently. Growing up, Andrew was part of the Scouting Association and spent a great deal of time outdoors and in particular in the Peak District, as part of a team enjoying activities and challenges. Sadly, Andrew’s Scout Leader from those days, a greatly respected man called Frank Walton, passed away recently, and so he decided to create a Starting Blocks Challenge in the Peak District in honour of Frank and to help bring new colleagues closer together. Andrew said: 

"The Monsal Trail is relatively local to our base in Sheffield and it’s a disused railway line, so it allowed the different abilities of the team to do as much as possible without everybody being forced to complete the maximum distance. One of the team walked instead of riding. It actually turned out to be much harder than expected but was a great team event with everybody digging really deep to get the job done. It really was an amazing effort by everyone and the pint in the pub at the end of the day after seven hours in the saddle was definitely well received!" 

Everyone at the Trust would like to say a huge thank you to Nigel Turton, Callum Frith, Alex Cozens, Duncan Clay, Jon McAlister and Andrew Harrison for completing the challenge, you can still sponsor them here. There have been some wonderful Starting Blocks Challenges undertaken already by the Baker Mallett team, you can look back on Tom and Jon’s challenges on our website. If they have inspired you, why not take up a challenge of your own, you can sign up here to go back to give back.