Local student takes on Snowdon Challenge for her 18th birthday and raises money for Farleigh Hospice

Your 18th birthday is always a key milestone in your life, but Molly Lacey decided to make her 18th celebrations even more memorable by climbing Snowdon and raising nearly £800 for Farleigh Hospice.

Molly, from Maldon, was accompanied by her sisters Ashlea and Charlotte. The Snowdon challenge saw the trio take on the highest mountain in England and Wales.

Molly said: “We decided to take on the Snowdon challenge to raise money for Farleigh, as they cared for our Great Aunt Claire, who had pancreatic cancer. They cared for her within the hospice and supported the whole family through a very difficult. We just wanted to give something back.

We have grown up around mountains, we are outdoors people and always enjoy long walks. When we saw the Snowdon challenge, we thought it was the perfect challenge for us.

We were originally going to take part in Farleigh’s Snowdon at Night, but due to the pandemic, large groups were not allowed to climb together, and the event was cancelled. However, we still wanted to take part and decided to head to Wales and climb on our own.

We started our training during the lockdown, going for three to four-hour walks. My sister was in lockdown at her university, and so we did workouts over WhatsApp, we tried to do something every day.

The climb took place on the 8th August. The first section of the mountain was tough, a very steep incline, but once you are over the first section, it opens out and you can see straight across the national park. It was just beautiful, and it gets more incredible as you climb. As we went up, we started to walk through the cloud, an amazing experience. It took us four hours to get to the top, we felt triumphant and excited we had made it.

On the way down, we were still excited! When we got to the bottom, there was a stunning waterfall, so we had a little paddle and celebrated what we had just achieved.

We wanted to raise money for Farleigh, and so we set up a JustGiving page and raised £641. We also encouraged everyone to gift aid, which helped us raise an additional £135.25p"

If you are inspired by Molly’s story why not sign up for a Farleigh Challenge in 2021. From Sky Dives, Three Peaks Challenge, Euro City Cycle to Snowdon at Night, there is a challenge for everyone. For more information on Farleigh, challenges visit www.farleighhospice.org/events or call 01245 457411.