Triple hiking challenge in aid of Bel (From Craven Herald)

Triple hiking challenge in aid of Bel

9:20am Monday 2nd July 2012 in News

A group of Craven women is busy training for the mountain of all challenges.

Over the next three years, the Coniston Cold based group will tackle three very different walks.

And at the end of it, they hope to have raised thousands of pounds for ten-year-old Bel Young, formerly of Embsay, who is paralysed after falling from a climbing frame two years ago.

Beginning in September, the Boots on for Bel group will carry out a 20- mile walk around Harrogate and Knaresborough.

The group, which includes Bel’s mother, Vanessa, has set itself a target of getting 500 other women to come along.

They have already been targeting sports halls and gyms across the area for women to join them on the Harrogate Ringway Walk.

Next year, they will tackle the Yorkshire Three Peaks, and in 2013 they will reach the climax of their fundraising by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Sophie Edleston, group member, along with Joanne Booth, Heidi Marfitt and Rachel Jones, said their aim was to keep fundraising going because of Bel’s ongoing needs.

“initially the idea was to do just one challenge, but then we thought we’d do more because not everyone could make the first one,” said Sophie.

Bel’s family has had to adapt the home where they now live just outside Harrogate, while her constant physiotherapy costs around £1,000 per month.

To take part in the Harrogate walk on September 9, go to the beingbeltrust website.