The Lond mynd Hike and three great charities!

We are gearing up for our 50-mile charity hike by hoping that the weather in October will be good to us as fears are raised of the team cowering on the side of a Shropshire hill sheltering from gale force winds and that light rain that “soaks you through”!

The good thing about taking on the challenge of the Long Mynd Hike is that whenever we think about how tough it will be we get to think about the money we will be raising for three really worthwhile local charities.

We will spend up to 24 hours following a route over the rugged countryside of South Shropshire and the Welsh Marches, with about 8,000 feet of climbing covering eight summits… but that is nothing compared to what the people our charities help go through.

We want to raise as much money for Shropshire Mind, the Severn Hospice and the Midlands Air Ambulance as we can – and we wanted the wonderful fundraisers and representatives of the charity to tell you a bit more about what they do and why fundraising is so important.

Mrs Helen Ayash Hill, chairman of Shropshire Mind, says she is really overwhelmed that people are now much more aware of mental health problems and the work that they do.

“We know that one in four people will, at some time, have some kind of mental health problem and this kind of illness has always been a bit of a stigma, which we are trying to reduce,”she says.

“We are trying to talk more generally about mental health problems. It is not something to be scared of. It’s something that the general public perhaps need to understand more about.

“We do have a lot of people that use our services in many different ways according to their needs, we are running a recovery service which is absolutely free and there is a counselling service we are just getting launched again.

“We also have a drop-in for those people who have perhaps enduring mental health problems. Anyone in the general public can walk through our door and ask for help.

“This donation would really help us with our services very much. They are very much needed, especially as statutory services are struggling to cope with the referrals they have already.”

Mike Perry, community fundraising advisor for Severn Hospice, which cares for people with complex and progressive illnesses, said: “We are truly grateful to Chris and the team from Bespoke Computing for undertaking this challenge to help raise much needed funds for the hospice. It is only thanks to the generosity of others that we are able to care for so many local people.”

And the final charity is the Midlands Air Ambulance, which relies on public fundraising to stay in the air every day.

Maria Jones, of the charity, told us: “ “We rely on the generosity of public fundraising so the support and generosity of businesses like yours is invaluable.

“As a charity we do not get any funding from the Government or the Lottery but yet our services saves lives every day. We are currently fundraising to buy a helicopter which could be flown at night which would be amazing for the people of Shropshire.

“The funds the Long Mynd Hike team from Bespoke Computing will raise will ensure the air ambulance, which costs £24 a minute to fly, is available in emergencies – we all hope we will never need the service ourselves but nobody knows.”

Please can you help us support these great causes by clicking over to our Just Giving page and donating.  Thank you.