Eastern member increases charity total for BEAT an eating disorders charity challenge.
Back in May 2023 Team Eastern along with family and friends embarked on a charity challenge to support fellow Better Eastern member Daniela to raise awareness and money for BEAT an Eating Disorders Charity and to mark the start of National Metal Health Week.
The challenge set was ambitious. The team had to complete the Brecon Beacons Horseshoe. The circular walk was a total distance of 10 miles and included popular mountain trails such as Corn Du (872m), Pen Y Fan (886m), Cribyn (795m) and Fan Y Big (717m). The team conquered the physical challenge but still had a difficult fundraising target of £1000 to achieve.
During all the excitement leading up to the charity event there was one Better member whose support and motivation to complete the house shoe circular walk was cut short due to a much needed operation.
Better Member Gaynor unfortunately missed out on the opportunity to complete the charity challenge with her friend Daniela and fellow members. However that didn’t stop Gaynor. Prior to Gaynor’s operation she was raising funds and awareness for BEAT and continued to do so through her recovery.
On the 3rd September 2023 Gaynor began her ascent with her hiking partner Daniela up the Brecon Beacons Horse Shoe – in reverse – which some say is more challenging with steeper climbs introduced at the start rather than steep descents at the end of the route.
Gaynor who had an operation at the end of April for a hernia and is 30 years Daniela’s senior experienced many lows during the 8 and half hour trek which was becoming more and more torturous with every notion of “how much further” being met with “we’re nearly there” for the last 2 hours of the walk. However the pair survived the mountain... and each other and experienced the ultimate high achieving their target, conquering the mountain, supported each other and being proud of themselves and one another.
Gaynor and Daniela showed grit and persevered raising a staggering £710 making the current combined total raised for this challenge an incredible £1334 exceeding their target. To date Team Eastern have help to raise an astonishing total of £3674 for BEAT Eating Disorder Charity.
If you would still like to help raise awareness of eating disorders and support the charity, you can donate here
Well done Gaynor and Daniela who are just 2 of Eastern’s Inspirational Members! What’s the next challenge...?
If you are interested in getting involved in the Team Eastern Community events please email eastern@gll.org. New members always welcome.