Young Minds x Morgan King
This October, Morgan King took part in fundraising for our chosen charity: Young Minds, a charity that raises awareness and support for children and young people’s mental health. They are an amazing organization whose goal is to ensure that every child, parent, young person and, educational institution have access to vital support and tools needed to help young people who are suffering with mental health problems.
Our fundraising month started off with a company wide Stoptober; where we decided to give up the drink to raise awareness for young people’s mental health. At first, it didn’t seem like such a difficult task; however, as our first Friday came around where the prosecco, which we usually had to celebrate the week and all our accomplishments, was swapped for a glass of water; we realised just how difficult this was going to be. Especially with October having 5 weekends, AND Halloween coming up at the end of the month!
As we slowly got used to no more after work drinks, or a glass of wine to wind down after a stressful day in recruitment we started to prepare for our next fundraising event, the Leeds-Liverpool stationary bike ride, which took place on the 15th of October. Unfortunately, weather wasn’t on our side, so our bike ride was moved from outside to inside the office! Nevertheless, the team took it in their stride (and probably appreciated the lack of people seeing them donning a yellow feather boa smack bang in the middle of Leeds), and we smashed our 127-mile distance to cycle by 4pm! It was probably the easiest of our activities, but we were okay with that considering our biggest challenge was looming around the corner.
The 23rd of October was THE day, the day we had been waiting for, the day we had been preparing for, and for some; the day we had been dreading. It was time for some of the team to take on the Yorkshire 3 peaks. Meeting outside the office at 4am was a rude awakening, all of us stood half asleep, backpacks by our feet and none of us really realising just how difficult the next 14 hours were going to be. We were optimistic though; it can’t be that tough… can it?
Stood at the side of a mountain at 6am in the pitch black, with nothing but the torches from our iPhones and the headtorches from the obviously better prepared walkers around us, the optimism seemed to drop, I think a lot of us were really pondering on what on earth we got ourselves into. There was no turning back now though, so off we went- climbing up the side of Pen-Y-Ghent, using our hands to support ourselves going up the steppingstone like surface of the mountain. What a view from the top though! Suddenly, that hour of tough terrain climbing was worth it.
Whernside wasn’t much easier, whilst the steady incline was a nice change from the almost rock climbing, we had to do for Pen-Y-Ghent, the steps every so often reminded us that its marathon not a sprint and slowed even the fittest of our team down. After what felt like an eternity walking upwards, we reached the top! Apparently though, we hadn’t chosen a great day to do so, as we could barely see in front of us due to thick fog. Coming down Whernside was little to be desired, steep hills coupled with slippery like ice slate steps slowed the entire team down more than we had wanted, and multiple slips and falls meant we were stopping and starting for much of the descent.
Finally, after 2 difficult climbs already; we reached the summit of Ingleborough. What we maybe didn’t think about was just how long the walk to the summit of Ingleborough was. Paired with walking through a field with a warning sign for a bull- its safe to say we wanted to get climbing as quickly as possible. Ingleborough, in some of the team’s opinion, was the most difficult mountain we tackled. Possibly due to the fact we were now 6 hours into walking, exhausted, and starting to feel the effects of the 3 peaks on our bodies. However, most of the mountain was quite a pleasant walk, but then we hit the point. If you’ve walked the Yorkshire 3 peaks, you probably already know exactly which point of Ingleborough I’m referring to. The part of the mountain which gives you vertigo and, has you questioning every decision you’ve made in your life that has led you to that exact moment. The part of Ingleborough the team so fondly referred to as, the zig zags. We couldn’t turn back now though; we’d already done 2/3 and we weren’t going to let the 3rd peak defeat us. So, we regrouped, we pep-talked and we steadily made our way up the “zig-zags”. I wish I could explain the feeling of reaching the top of the 3rd peak, throwing our rocks onto the pile (as per the tradition of the 3 peaks), and realising that we had done it! We completed the 3 peaks, and the sense of pride (and relief!) throughout the team was immense.
All our efforts throughout this month, have been driven by our passion of raising mental health awareness, which is one of the reasons Young Minds was our chosen charity to fundraise for this month. Mental health is something everyone at Morgan King cares deeply about and is something that is close to our hearts, especially with having such a young workforce where there are so many factors that can affect their mental health. This year, we wanted to truly push ourselves to our limits, and make every penny earned and raised for Young Minds worth it. The 3 peaks were the most mentally and physically challenging thing the team has done, but also one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences. Despite the aching legs and sore feet, all of us who took part in our Morgan King 3 Peaks Challenge thoroughly enjoyed the experience- doing something that even though its on our doorstep, many of us would probably never have thought to do something like the Yorkshire 3 Peaks if it wasn’t for our fundraiser.