A former PE teacher, his son and a former colleague are to take on a five-time challenge of the Yorkshire Three Peaks for an Ilkley charity.
Derek Radcliffe, 65, is in the business of taking on challenges and on Tuesday, August 15th he’ll be putting on his walking boots again to take on his latest challenge – trying to complete the circuit of the three Yorkshire Three Peaks of Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough five consecutive times in less than 55 hours!
Derek, together with his youngest son Calum and former colleague Chris Carris, will be putting themselves through this physical exercise to raise funds to provide assisted places for under-privileged children at Nell Bank Children’s Outdoor Education Centre in Ilkley.
The Centre, which was formerly run by Bradford Council, is now managed by Nell Bank Charitable Trust!
Derek and his small team will launch themselves into the walk which is expected to cover 125 miles and 8,000 metres of climbing at Horton in Ribblesdale at 7.15am next Tuesday. To complete their lung-busting walk they expect to take three days and two nights slogging round Yorkshire’s best-known peaks.
Derek said: “I’m sure there will be tough moments during the challenge but if one of us is flagging I’m sure the others will pitch in to keep him going.
“Also, I always have in mind why we’ve undertaken the challenge and the young people we’re trying to help.”
And Derek has come-up with a novel method of encouraging them to keep going. He’s designed an exclusive tee-shirt which features 15 triangles that represent every one of the peaks they have to scale.
He explained: “When we reach the top of every peak I’ll black out the triangle which represents it on my tee-shirt. That’ll encourage us to keep going.”
Derek and his companions have already helped raise £10,000 for Nell Bank by undertaking two consecutive laps of the Yorkshire Three Peaks in 2021 and then a second challenge of three consecutive laps in 2022.
Details of how you can sponsor Derek and friends on this five-time challenge can be found at this link www.nellbank.org/fundraising#threepeaks.
