On the 14th of June, our friend Ben, also known as Tube Snapper, summited and descended Mount Snowdon – the highest mountain in Wales. He completed this incredible challenge in around 16 and a half hours.
I used my #wheelchair, #Veloped walking machine, and my adapted walking sticks for a 16 hour climb up and down Yr Wyddfa, Mount Snowdon to raise money for Ataxia UK. This is a charity supporting 500 children and 10,000 adults in the UK with the degenerative neurological condition #ataxia.
Viktor, an Ataxia UK staff member, assisted Ben on his climb and together they succeeded in achieving Ben’s goal. Ben has already raised £5.718k and has exceeded his £5k target.
I’m so insanely grateful for how the support is spreading awareness for Ataxia and it will enable Ataxia UK to continue supporting people like me and help more people understand the condition.
While on the hike, he said he took around 100 selfies with people, and described the outpouring of support from people leaving comments and making donations on his JustGiving page. Sue Millman, our CEO, has praised Ben’s efforts to raise awareness for ataxia. She said,
“We need as a charity and as a disability community to come together and press for everywhere to be accessible for everybody”, she added.
There was a video featuring Ben on BBC Morning Live on wheelchair skills, but don’t worry if you missed it. The video will be available on iPlayer for a year.
Do you want to fundraise for Ataxia UK? Now is the time to find your challenge, and get in touch with us at fundraising@ataxia.org.uk about it. Become a friend of Ataxia UK for free and access the best support, keep up to date with the latest ataxia research news, and receive the ataxia magazine and monthly e-newsletters – all for FREE.
