Do You Mind A Challenge?

The other day I was in the workshop talking to some of the team when Ollie, who is one of the smallest of us, approached a large duffle bag of kit that an owner had dropped in and Zac, without real thought or hesitation said “I bet a fiver you can’t fit in that Ollie”. 

For a moment or two we all looked at the bag, Ollie included, and sized it up. I wasn’t sure if Ollie could fit but my inner-child thought he should at least give it a go. Then, just as suddenly as our focus had turned on this stupid random challenge, something broke the spell; maybe one of the dogs ran past, or the door to the varnish room swung open and Tom stepped out into the workshop, whatever it was, Ollie declared that if the bag was a tiny bit bigger he’d have a go and Zac shrugged like, either way, it didn’t matter to him. 

I love a ‘small’ challenge like that. One that is fun and stupid and safe and inconsequential. Even I would give getting inside a duffel bag a go, but you couldn’t zip it right up. I get claustrophobic and I’d need to know that I could get out, so to have the bag completely zipped up would freak me out. What I don’t understand is people who do big challenges, proper challenges, those challenges that push you to the very brink of your physical and mental limits. I’m talking marathons, triathlons, three peak challenges, swimming the channel, Ironman competitions and of course, the biggest challenge of all, climbing Everest. Why would anyone do these things? I mean, aside from having to do the actual challenge, there’s the time it takes to do the training, the money for all the kit and the preparation for the challenge. At the risk of sounding repetitive, why would anyone do it? 

That’s what I asked Tom, our workshop manager,

because he is doing the Apex Everest challenge this weekend. He starts the challenge on Friday morning at 7am and has to climb Helvellyn in the Lake District 9.2 times within a 48 hour period. This is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, passing Ben Nevis, Mount Fuji and K2 along the way. Tom is not a climber and although he is fit and healthy and only in his early forties, he has issues with his knees so I think his doing this challenge is crazy. Why would he do it? 

Tom has, over the years, been directly impacted by loved ones who have struggled with mental health issues. It’s not my story to tell but Tom has been bewildered when those he has loved, who seemed to have it all, have retreated into an unreachable place inside themselves and he has been helpless as he has witnessed their suffering and pain. Tom can tell you about the keloid scar that is left when a loved one gets sucked so deep into the chasm that you can’t get them back. It’s this scar that made Tom attend a mental health awareness and support course a couple of years ago so that he has some tools to help anyone else within his circle who might mentally struggle, but I think it’s the unanswered ‘What if?’  that echoes out from the past that has made Tom sign up to this Apex Everest challenge in order, not just to push himself mentally for those loved and lost, but to raise money for the charity Mind. 

If you, like Tom, have first hand experience and know someone who has struggled with their mental health but you are like me and want to support a great cause but would never be crazy enough to push yourself to the edges of your physical and mental limits, please do make a small donation to Tom’s Just Giving page here . You can then sit back this weekend, feeling good about how charitable you are while Tom properly puts himself and his dicky knees through the wringer as he climbs a mountain 9 times – yes 9 times, that’s over 100k in length and 8,849 meters high – in 48 hrs. I wonder if after this weekend Tom will catch the ‘bug’ that will make him want to do more physically extreme challenges or if he’ll be a bit more like me and embrace his inner child, and want to see if we can get Ollie into that kit bag?