A team from KIMS Hospital in Maidstone has achieved the amazing feat of climbing Mount Snowdon, and raising a fantastic £9,475.23 for HOLG, their charity of the year.

In total 29 staff completed the gruelling 3,409ft trek up Wales’ highest mountain, including Staff Nurse Maggie Healey, who is also a much-valued HOLG Children’s Support volunteer. They were delighted to smash their initial fundraising target of £5,000, which was increased to £6,000, and then again to £7,000.

As well as the considerable physical efforts of the climbers, the day involved a huge amount of preparation including arranging training walks, overnight stays in Pen-y-Pass, Wales, and coach travel to and from Wales.

The team taking on the challenge spanned various departments across the hospital, including Nursing, Radiography, Admin, HR, IT, Finance, Sevenoaks Medical Centre, Housekeeping, ward hosts and theatres, so a number of ‘get to know you’ sessions were also organised before they set off.

The climb is just one of the many events KIMS Hospital has organised for HOLG since announcing us as their Charity of the Year for the next two years.

KIMS Hospital Clinical Nurse Manager Keli Tomlin took part in the climb and commented:
“We decided to take on the challenge of climbing Mount Snowdon to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We  do a long walk every year, but this year we wanted to push ourselves physically and are overjoyed with our accomplishment. We are lucky that the hospital heavily subsidised the event to enable more people to attend.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done – even harder than the London Marathon!”

HOLG Fundraising Officer Pam Meller, who visited the hospital to meet the team and collect the cheque, said: “What a massive challenge and wonderful donation from one of our newest corporate supporters. Their contribution of more than £9,000 will cover the costs of supporting 18 bereaved children and allows us to plan future services, knowing the funding is in place.

“Corporate support like this is so valuable to us and we always welcome either one-off donations from businesses looking to support a charity by donating money raised from their fundraising events, or to develop longer-term support like Charity of the Year, as KIMS Hospital has done.”

The funds raised will go a long way towards helping HOLG continue its bereavement support work with children and their families. A huge well done and thank you to everyone who took part, helped to organise the event and donated!