As I  sit here and write this, I am questioning myself as to quite why I have chosen this particular challenge to raise funds for our charity. It must be just one of those occasions where you say you are going to do something and you have to follow through, with gritted teeth and hope for the best. 

I have a fear of heights and always go a bit wobbly at the knees when I find myself in a tall situation; I think upon riding the famous London Eye, I managed to stay standing until the awful rocking capsule I was enclosed in, reached about 5 o'clock. After that I had to retreat to the centre of the capsule (the furthest point from any window) and sit down stiffly, wondering how I was going to  endure the rest of the "Eye-conic journey". There are more times when I have reached the starry heights and had to back down in embarrassment, such as when my legs gave way trying to climb to the top of Blackpool Tower, and when I froze mid rope on a Go Ape visit because I made the mistake of looking down. 

All of this considered, abseiling the UK's highest Cathedral does not seem like the most sensible of choices but I believe the views of the city are amazing from up there and it is all for a worthy cause.

Some of you might already know that I work for the Big Help Project /Knowsley Foodbank as the Food Operations Manager.  Coming to work each day for this Charity is a privilege and my passion. 

Knowsley is consistently ranked as one in the top 5 most deprived boroughs in the country. During the last financial year we fed 86,000 people in Knowsley through our foodbanks and foodclubs combined. Our foodclubs are also proud to have helped to save 200 tonnes of food from going into landfill, The equivalent of 17 double decker buses. The average family is said to consume approximately a tonne of food per annum, so with this amount of food we could have fed 200 families for a year from surplus food saved from landfill alone.

Any money raised during this event will be put towards buying food for those most in need in our society. Due to many factors including the "cost of living crisis", an increase in fuel/ energy prices, rent increases and even food price increases too. We are seeing the numbers of people turning to the foodbank rise month upon month, with more and more people in full time employment finding that they need to use our services too. We are currently feeding as many people now as we were during the height of the pandemic. I speak to people on a daily basis that have to choose not only between heating and eating, but also between feeding themselves or their children. 

The number of donations we are seeing come through the doors have also been dropping as people are struggling themselves to survive and many social clubs, churches and schools have been struggling to fundraise in the same ways that they used to before the Pandemic. This means that to fill our food parcels each month we are having to top up or food donations by buying in bulk stock to keep up with the demand. 

Any help that you could give I know would go directly to people that need it the most at their times of crisis. Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.