THW Supports Mind over Mountains

THW are pleased to support local man Alex Staniforth, a record-breaking adventurer and mental health activist, who is returning with another epic attempt to support mental health after the COVID-19 lockdown.

In August 2020 25 year old Alex will attempt to run the National Three Peaks Challenge in under 9 days.

This involves climbing the UK’s three highest mountains - Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Snowdon – and running the entire distance between them, over 440 miles, or approximately 17 marathons in total.

If successful, his run will break the current record of 9 days and 11 hours.

The National Three Peaks Challenge is traditionally completed within 24 hours using vehicle transport in between the mountains.

Alex, who is based in Kendal, will be running an average of 48 miles (or nearly 2 marathons per day) with over 44,000ft in total height gain (or 1.5 times of Everest).

This follows Alex’s successful Climb the UK challenge in 2017 where he became the fastest person ever to climb the UK’s highest county peaks to raise awareness of depression and eating disorders and for which he won the Pride of Britain Granada Reports Fundraiser of the Year.

This was just a few years after Alex experienced the two biggest consecutive disasters in the history of Mount Everest, including the 2015 Nepal earthquake which trapped him on the mountain for 2 days.

Why?

Alex has himself suffered with depression, anxiety and the eating disorder bulimia for over 8 years and he recognises that the isolation resulting from the recent COVID19 lockdown has been especially difficult for people with eating disorders to manage.

He believes that attitudes such as ‘earning calories through exercise’ have re-enforced an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise.

Being male, he says, made it especially difficult for Alex to talk about and it took three years before he sought help.

By challenging himself Alex wants to challenge the stigma of eating disorders in men and raise awareness to prevent others from developing them.

To find out more and view his live map: www.alexstaniforth.com http://live.opentracking.co.uk/mom2020/#

To find out more about Mind Over Mountains and join their programmes visit www.mindovermountains.org.uk

Published 24 July 2020

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