Fundraising Stories

THE KINGS OF KILIMANJARO............. raise in excess of £40,000 !

In 2002, at the age of 18 months, Joshua Court sadly lost his fight against cancer.  Josh and his family were supported by Snowdrop during his treatment, and recently his mother Helen said, “We treasure the 18 months we had with Josh and will always remember the help we received from The Sussex Snowdrop Trust.  Towards the end, they offered palliative care so that Josh was able to live his last week at home.” 

A family friend of the Court’s, Dickie Daw, lost his mother to cancer last year which made him want to do something personal for charity.  As Dickie’s mother loved children and as he had known Josh’s family for years, he thought, “Why not raise money for the local children’s charity The Sussex Snowdrop Trust and make a real difference?”  Helen and Michael Court, Josh’s parents, also wanted to do something significant to mark the 10 years since Josh passed away.  In 2012 the idea took on momentum, a Mount Kilimanjaro expedition was decided upon for 3 – 12 February 2013, and TEAM JOSH was born. 

In the months leading up to this amazing african expedition, the fundraising took many forms....... Helen Court, family and friends were seen many times shaking collecting buckets outside of Sainsbury’s; competitive shooting days were held; the Joshua Court Memorial Football Challenge took place; a quiz night proved great fun and a wonderfully successful New Year’s Eve Party was organised.

The walk itself proved to be a challenge;  following porridge for breakfast the team walked for up to 7 hours each day, which due to the increasing altitude was done at a fairly slow pace.  There was not a great deal of sleep to be had, particularly on the first night when an exceptionally noisy local bird kept everyone awake for hours !  However, the group remained cheerful, thoroughly enjoying the magnificent scenary, and an 80’s music quiz proved to be great  entertainment.   A WELCOME HOME Party was held in March, attended by a group of Snowdrop staff who were able to thank TEAM JOSH members, their families and friends for this incredible achievement.

All team members very generously funded the cost of the trip themselves, so that every penny donated has come directly to Snowdrop.   Thanks guys !

Also thanks to our old friends Bognor Motors for supplying the minibus to transport the climbers and their gear to/from the UK airport !

In August Duncan Marston and his Team from Langmead Farms completed the 24 Hour, 3 Peaks Challenge below is his account of their brave endeavour:

"8 of us completed the 24 hour challenge in record time, 21 hours and 25 minutes!  The successful challenge  was due to a lot of training, planning, good navigation and very good luck with the weather. We started at the bottom of Ben Nevis at 16.00 on Friday afternoon, 10 minutes after another team, by the time we were back at the bus we had caught them. We met them again at 04.30, 30 mins from the top of Scafell they were climbing up when we passed them going down. At Snowdon we had increased our lead to about  1 ½ hours and we finished at 13.25 on the Saturday. Everyone had a brilliant time, although we were all knackered and knees were creaking!"

Together the Team raised a magnificent £3,354.75, well done to all of you.  Also a special thank you to Langmead Farms for supporting the trip.