Join Gympanzees for the most highly regarded trekking challenge in the UK! This iconic challenge is a great way to push yourself at the beginning of this decade!

About Gympanzees and how you'll help them:

There are 1 million disabled children and young people in the UK. 84% of families with a disabled child can't access regular leisure and their health and well-being are suffering as a result. 72% of parents suffer from mental health difficulties as a result of isolation.

Gympanzees are an award-winning charity, and their vision is that every disabled child and young person in the UK has access to play, friendship and exercise opportunities.

They plan to achieve this by opening the UK's first, fully inclusive leisure facilities around the UK. The first will be in the Bristol area and will cater for the play, exercise and social needs of the 58,000 children and young people, from 0-25 years old, with disabilities who live in the area.

While they are procuring funding and land for the main centre, they have been running pop up versions of the centre in Bristol during the Easter and Summer holidays. Since July 2018, they have run 3 successful Pop Ups, with nearly 4,000 visitors and 100% of parents saying Gympanzees offers unique facilities for their child.

However, due to the Covid-19 outbreak, they have had to rethink how they provide support, while their Pop Ups cant run. They needed to take some Gympanzees fun into their families homes, helping them feel less isolated whilst engaging in specific and inclusive play and exercise activities. To do this they developed and launched project Our Home - an online resource hub with activities and videos, specialist online therapy sessions and an equipment lending library.

Already their equipment lending library has an 18-week waiting list for some items and things continue to be booked up so they desperately need to purchase more specialist equipment for their families to borrow. Their Therapy Webinars were described as a real lifeline and they would love to be able to put more on for their families. It is vital that they continue to support the physical and mental health and wellbeing of their families, especially during this time when the level of accessible external support has significantly reduced and pre-existing challenges for already vulnerable families have intensified.

This project requires funding at a time when many of their income sources have decreased, so your support will help us continue supporting 1000s of children and young people with disabilities and their families, prepare for Pop Ups next year and get back on track with their plans to build Gympanzees a permanent home and support our families 364 days a year.

The Challenge:

Leaving from the Gympanzees office in Bristol on the morning of Saturday 12th June, the team will be driven to Scotland to start the challenge. The first of the three peaks is Ben Nevis. Once this climb is complete the team will be driven to peak number two; Scafell Pike in the Lake District. Finally, the team will drive to Wales to climb the final peak; Snowdon. After completing all three peaks, the team will drive back to Bristol arriving on the evening of Sunday 13th June. Due to the current situation and uncertainty with Covid-19, we will continue to follow government guidance and if in the unfortunate event we have to cancel this event for 2021, your fee and place will be transferred over to 2022.