9 Aug 2022 Personal Stories

Brothers Andy and Dave take on Yorkshire Three Peaks in memory of their sister Helen.

"Pain is only temporary but the legacy your fundraising leaves, can be a permanent reminder of the care and compassion, The Kirkwood gives to families like mine, when we needed them most"

In September 2020, brothers Andy and Dave made the decision to fundraise for The Kirkwood, signing up to our Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge, after spotting an advert on Facebook.

Andy says: “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and it was for a great cause”

Little did the brothers know at the time, that The Kirkwood would be playing an active role in their lives in the lead up to their challenge. Around the same time the brothers had signed up for their challenge, their sister Helen had received the life changing news that after over a decade in remission her breast cancer had returned, this time on her brain.

A very bubbly, outgoing person, Helen wasn’t going to let this get in the way of celebrating her 40th the following Spring. The life and soul of the party, Helen liked to live life to the full, booking a last family trip to Center Parcs for her birthday celebrations for April, the same time the brothers were due to complete their challenge.

Andy explains: “I rang Joanna at The Kirkwood and told her the circumstances, she was very compassionate and understood the importance of the family trip. We left the door open for future challenges, and she contacted me again just before Christmas and asked, would we like to re-sign up for May 2022?

It was one on the bucket list to sign off and had a deeper meaning for us to complete, this time round.”

The Kirkwood Community Nurse team visited Helen and her family regularly, supporting with her care needs and wishes. Communicating with the family regularly in the early stages, and visiting more frequently as Helen’s care needs worsened, helping her remain comfortable with pain management medications, conversation, and support.

Helen died May 2021, spending her last three days at home with her loved ones, and in those last three days The Kirkwood nurses were there.

Fast forward one year, Andy and Dave successfully completed their Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge in May 2022, in an incredible 9 hours and 20 minutes, beating the average time set out for completion.

Andy says: “We were very chuffed with this”

The brothers started their day of mountaineering at 7am, after a stopover at Malam on the Friday. They began with Pen-Y-Ghent, moving on to Whernside and finishing with Ingleborough. Initially setting a target to raise £500 the brothers finished their fundraising with an amazing £12,000, plus gift aid, most of which was raised online as Andy explains: “I’d never done anything like that before, but it was really easy, we set it up and away we went. The only cash donation we received was and extra £20 from our builder following a general chit chat, whilst having some work done, he said he would like to contribute, and we were very grateful.”

Andy continues: “We found the fundraising quite hard initially, as people don’t have the money nowadays, like they used to do because of what was going on in the world. It was a difficult challenge and just when you’ve reached the summit and take a moment to celebrate, you realise you have a 6 mile walk back to the car!”

The brothers finishing their challenge with a celebratory meal and a few beers back in Malam, with discussion of their next potential challenge of taking on the National Three Peaks, in the near future. A few weeks later the family went away again to celebrate Helen’s life and what would have been her 41st birthday.

Encouraging others to take part in The Kirkwood challenges, Andy had this to say: “It's difficult but worth it. The way me and Dave looked at it was, we suffered for a few hours, our sister didn’t, she suffered for a lot longer than that. The pain we suffered was nothing in comparison to Helen’s and that’s what kept us going.”

Andy speaks of our fundraising team member Joanna: “Joanna was a huge help and excellent. She sorted everything out with Kuta Outdoors and gave me all the contact details for the mountain leader.”

For anyone thinking of signing up to the challenge Andy leaves you with this message: “If you think – I am going to do it, you can. Pain is only temporary but the legacy your fundraising leaves, can be a permanent reminder of the care and compassion, The Kirkwood gives to families like mine, when we needed them most.”