The Rotary Club of Windsor St George are to take part in the 2010 Sightsavers Rotary Mountain Challenge

On 12-13 June, six brave individuals from the Rotary Club of Windsor St George will be reaching new heights as they scale three of Great Britain's tallest mountains in 24 hours to raise money for international development charity Sightsavers International. The group, along with 20 other teams, will lace up their hiking boots and don rucksacks to climb approximately 10,000 feet to take part in the 2010 Sightsavers Rotary Mountain Challenge.

The team will start the challenge by hiking up Great Britain�s highest mountain, Ben Nevis in Scotland, tackling the 4,406ft to the snow-capped summit.� Next the team will take on Helvellyn, one of the tallest mountains in the Lake District before finishing by climbing Mount Snowdon in Wales which stands at 3,560ft.�

The Team

The team have been training steadily over the past few months, tackling a variety of different hills as well as doing general fitness training. Team leader Philip Lenton hopes his team will raise over £5,000 for the charity which works in developing countries to prevent and cure blindness, and to support those who are visually impaired through education and training.

Philip commented: "The Sightsavers Rotary Mountain Challenge will be a great personal challenge for me. I have taken part in shorter walks and bike rides for charity in the past, but this is by far the hardest event that I have attempted. I am hoping that we will be able to raise a significant amount of money for Sightsavers by taking part in this challenge, and am pleased to have the support of my friends, family and colleagues as well as members of the Rotary Club of Windsor St George."

Sightsavers International

There are 45 million people in the world who are blind, yet 75% of blindness is preventable or curable. Just £17 can transform a person's life by restoring sight to someone suffering from cataracts, the biggest cause of blindness. The sponsorship raised by the Rotary Club of Windsor St George will enable Sightsavers to transform so many lives in Africa and India.
 

For further information

If you would like members of the Windsor St George team to visit your club and talk about the challenge (either before or after the event), or would like further information on how you can support the team, please e-mail wstgmountain@googlemail.com or phone Philip Lenton on 07801 351655.

You can read more about the team's training and fundraising on their blog, http://wstgmountainchallenge.wordpress.com

1. Sightsavers International is a registered UK charity (numbers 207544 / SC038110) that works in more than 30 developing countries to prevent blindness, restore sight and advocate for social inclusion and equal rights for people who are blind and visually impaired. www.sightsavers.org
2. There are 45 million blind people in the world; 75% of all blindness can be prevented or cured.
3. Since 1950, Sightsavers has restored sight to more than 5.65 million people and treated over 100 million more.
4. The Sightsavers Rotary Mountain Challenge is run every two years and 2010 will be the third event.The 2008 challenge raised £115,000 to support Sightsavers work