The feeling of butterflies in the tummy is always a welcome one here at New World. We rise to the challenge and encourage that perfectly balanced mix of excitement with nerves and our recent National Three Peaks fundraising was no exception!

Firstly, let us introduce the love behind the cause and the driving force to tackle three mountains in 24 hours and 35 miles. We partner with Barnardo’s (children’s charity) because we passionately believe in bright futures for all, it’s as simple as that! Alongside supporting young people in the UK, our partnership also brings opportunity for our teams to throw themselves into amazing experiences… a “win win” we think you’ll agree. From Dragon Boat racing to skydiving, and now on to the Three Peaks.

Katie Longbottom, HR Project Manager, takes us on their journey: “So, there we were on a sunny morning in Manchester, meeting at Piccadilly station, to embark on the bucket list worthy National Three Peaks Challenge in 24 hours. And butterflies were flying! Let me introduce the crew…

A short seven-hour journey up to Fort William, with some interesting team bonding, plenty of pork pies and giggles and we were ready for our briefing.

Our amazing guides, Jack and Sam (thank you Maximum Adventure), began to put the fear into our wings… wow, suddenly it seemed real. And the nerves were too; between shaking cocktails, cooking amazing food and creating smiles across the country, there hadn’t been much time for training! Never the less, up we got at 6 am and embarked up Ben Nevis after a full cooked brekkie and PLENTY of bananas (mother nature’s sweet bonbons of energy are a necessity for such an occasion after all).

Round one: Ben Nevis – where to start… views fit for a king!! Smashing our first mountain (with barely a break in site and a short ten minutes at the top I should add) we knew we were IN! The journey was quite simply, breathtaking. Quote of the trip came from CEO Chris Hill on Ben’s descent; “This is my favourite day ever!”

Back on the coach and another long journey to Scafell Pike we were feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves!! 

Round two: Enter Scafell – at night time – quite the juxtaposition of experiences. ‘Ben’ had delivered beautiful sunlight with long winding paths… but the Lakes, well she was a whole other story! Steep as the day is long, as rocky as a pebbled beach. Much larger rocks of course, but just as free as pebbles under the feet!

That was a tough one for the crew, difficulty level TEN. As we approach the top, old faithful Mother N shows her true colours with a SHOWSTOPPING blood moon. Never had we seen the moon shine so bright. Quite the reward, I know you’ll agree! And down we came, in the darkness, ready for another long bus ride to PEAK NUMBER THREE! We were nearly there!!

  Round three: Hello Snowdon! We couldn’t quite see her peaking summit yet, some much needed stretching was going down in the café carpark (the service station stop after round 2 also saw the crew doing much needed Yoga by the trucks stop!). Muscles ready, off we popped to begin our final ascent, and the first part was a walk in the park! Lovely paths and rolling hills hugging shining lakes. Gorgeous. Then we enter “the cloud” and the rocky steep side of the top of Snowdown. The climb to the summit could be seen as damp and grey, but for us it was poetically romantic and wonderfully melancholic in sight. THE FINAL PUSH was upon us… the sentence “are we nearly there yet” was used more times than a whole school of children on the way to Disney Land!

Of course, we made it! Right to the summit, what an incredible wave of pride and relief!! Wait, what? OH, we still had to get back down! And what a descent it was. Another hour of cloud until finally, the views came back to us. A ‘whoosh’ of wind and the clouds dissipated into nothing…back to those winding lines of land and water. WOW. My favourite.

“One of the best things I have ever done! It was emotionally and physically intense, but we all felt a real sense of belonging and support through bonding with other members of our company, and a GREAT sense of achievement!!” Noah Villeneuve, Bartender at The Florist, Bristol.

Peaks complete, the adventure of a lifetime stays with us all. A return to London for myself left me with displaced insides…I think I left my heart in the hills!! But I still carried the love and connections we made in our day of exploration. Admiration to the whole crew for their courage, and to all who supported, donated and encouraged us to complete the challenge, THANK YOU.

 “The best part for me, was actually all the hardest parts! There were points that were really mentally challenging for each of us, but spurring each other on and remembering the amazing cause got us to the top…three times!” Ben Warner, Server at The Botanist, Alderley Edge.

STATS:   3 mountains conquered £9,000 raised 12 bucket lists ticked 80,374 steps taken 674 floors climbed 35.3 miles walked.