When the daylight is long gone, and the cold and pain are at their worst, these exhausted souls will remember all their kindly sponsors, and the charities they're fundraising for. Why not help them in their darkest hours? A range of worthy charities deserve your sponsorship, and you'll also be giving them extra motivation to persist, up and over the last few mountains — each of which will seem impossibly high by then! Thank you, and please mention this event when you donate!
Kirsch Bowker has been vegan for 24 years and vegetarian since the age of 8. She spends every spare minute in the Welsh hills — particularly the Carneddau — with her excitable companion Pinkle the dog. The pair pass millennia of human history in any one walk, from megalithic standing stones to abandoned 20th century lead mines, with many of the paths following old roman roads, and all reverting back to nature. This temporality of human civilisation/life fascinates her. Kirsch is attempting this challenge to raise money for Sea Shepherd UK, who campaign to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans. Click here to sponsor Kirsch.
Lee Culley lives on a narrow boat with his wife, two dogs and seven cats - all rescued, except his wife, of whom Lee states, "she rescued me!" They have all lived completely off the grid for the last decade. Lee works with homeless people in Cambridge as a specialist support worker. He has a long history of active participation within animal and human rights and environmental groups, and led numerous campaigns. He loves his motorbike and music, and is affectionately known by his friends as the 'Happy Metal Hippy'. Having just finished six years of competition rowing, Lee's looking for a new challenge. We believe we can assist him :) He's also fundraising for the Brook Farm Animal Sanctuary. Click here to sponsor Lee.
Iain Gibson lives in Yorkshire and hails from Glasgow. Having ascended a number of the Scottish Munros in years gone by, he is taking part in this challenge to help kick-start the hill-walking habit once more, after a couple of years of neglect partly due to living in a very flat part of the region. He also plans to raise money for the Dr Hadwen Trust, which funds medical research to replace experiments on animals. Click here to sponsor Iain.
Andrew Knight is the Founder of the Extreme Vegan Sporting Association, and partially to blame for this crazy idea. He is a London-based bioethicist, but his Australian ancestors evolved over millennia to lie on warm, sunny beaches under perfect blue skies. Consequently he is particularly challenged by cold, dark places, and will deeply appreciate Andrew T's offer to carry his backpack. He would also deeply appreciate any kindly sponsors. He's climbing these mountains to fundraise for the political party Animals Count, who represent the interests of animals. Click here to sponsor Andrew. NEWS FLASH: Andrew has now broken his right arm, but plans to attempt the 15 peaks anyway. How stupid is that?!?!
Olaf Laczak, a long-time vegan living in Helsinki, loves to hike in the mountains and is excited to be visiting Snowdonia for the first time. His areas of interest include computer science, sociology and political economy of human-animal relations, animal rights from an abolitionist perspective, human rights issues, and history seen from the viewpoint of the oppressed. Support Olaf by making people aware of a new documentary about farm animals called Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home. You can also donate to Tribe of Heart, the producers of this film, to support their future work.
Andrew Taylor aims to be "your trustworthy vegan plumber." His skill within dark, wet environments gave him an unfair advantage during the Vegan 3 Peaks Challenge 2009, which he appeared to complete with ease. Accordingly, as a man of honour, we hope he will offer to carry our packs during this event. He volunteers weekly for Wildlife Aid, which is dedicated to the rescue, care and rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned British wildlife. He is undertaking this extreme challenge to fundraise for Wildlife Aid. Click here to sponsor Andrew.
John Morsley is a real man. As far as we can tell doesn't train but relies on his sheer machismo to get him up the mountains. It seemed to work for the Yorkshire 3 Peaks where he could still be seen smiling through his obvious pain, and even enabled him to drive to London the night after, instead of crashing like the rest of us! We sincerely hope it will also work for the 15 Peaks, but are gravely concerned... He hasn't told us why he's doing this event, but given his nature the obvious answer is because it's the most painful thing he can think of. John is an extremely nice guy with a raucous sense of humour whom we are relying on to keep us entertained.
Chloe Vincent describes herself as sometimes foolhardy, a little gung-ho, and normally keen to be part of any vegan adventure. However, this particular adventure is extreme, and she claims to have been tricked into it by Andy K and Andy T. Naturally we deny everything. Nevertheless, she's tackling it with great spirit, using her long hot days performing multi-tasky decathalons around the small commercial kitchen in London where she works as a chef, to cross-train. Unlike the rest of the team, she's also training for the London Marathon at the same time! Did we mention that she's foolhardy? She's also fundraising for the political party Animals Count, who represent the interests of animals. Click here to sponsor Chloe.