On the weekend of September 17th 2011, staff and volunteers from Hartlepool Mind took on the National 3 Peaks challenge. Over the course of the weekend we drove 1123 miles, walked 26 miles and climbed 9646 ft, reaching the highest points in Scotland, England and Wales in a 24 hour period.  

Sound painful? IT WAS!!  

So why did we decide to do it?

 Over the past few months funding to Hartlepool Mind has been severely cut. This has resulted in some vital services that many in the town rely on being discontinued. Last year alone we saw in excess of 1500 people experiencing mental ill health. It has become a source of comfort to a great number of people in Hartlepool to know they can self-refer into our service and receive support through difficult times.  

So partly we set off on this expedition to raise awareness of the current plight of our service.  

No challenge like this is ever undertaken without the motive of raising funds, and we were no different. So partly we were trying to get some money into the depleted coffers.

But we also partly did it to practice what we preach. Our advice to people when they come to see us is often to get some exercise, set some goals, stretch themselves physically and mentally and to be more pro-active in trying to alter their life circumstances. So that’s what we did. And very good advice it proved to be too.  

And finally…despite all the staff involved being adversely affected by the funding cuts, none of the money raised goes towards the funding of the expedition; it was entirely self-financed.   

Donations can still be made to our JustGiving site: http://www.justgiving.com/Hartlepool-Mind .  Alternatively any donations to Hartlepool Mind would be gratefully received.