49 local residents climb Snowdon

Date published: 23 April 2022

A group of 49 local people climbed Snowdon on Saturday (16 April) in support of local organisation Well Mental UK.

Participant's ages ranged from Paul Noon, the oldest at 65, down to Noah Hardy at just 10 years old.

Snowdon is the highest mountain in England and Wales and stands at 1,345 metres (3,560 feet). The adventure was organised by John Barlow, Julianne Noon and Scott Hardy.

The group met at Heywood Sports Centre and left at 3.30am, arriving to start the walk at just after 6am. The coach journeys there and back consisted of non-stop singing, laughing and real camaraderie in a group that had come together in this size for the first time.

It was clearly a challenge, but everyone looked after each other - supporting, encouraging and helping each other - so that every ;participant finished the mountain safe and sound.

The summit was reached by the first walkers at 8.30am, with most arriving just after 9am, and everyone was back down by around 1pm and back in Heywood by 4pm.

Julianne said: “Well Mental UK would like to thank Atlantic Coaches for a great journey, Morrisons for donating food and drinks, Icon Sports for the great bobble hats, and most importantly, everyone who took part in the walk for a phenomenal day, supporting a great cause, and for being a superb group of people.”

Well Mental UK is a CIC which is run by a small group of volunteers, who have personal experience of living, or supporting loved ones, with different mental health conditions.

It aims to make a positive impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing by motivating them to get physically active and outdoors.

Well Mental organises local walks on the first Sunday of every month and is also crowdfunding to enable more trips like this in future. Donations can be made via JustGiving.