Mountains and Dragons

The Mount Snowdon Push

Over the weekend of 9th and 10th of July 2011 a Stewarts Law team participated in this year's "Snowdon Push". The "Push" is an annual fund raising event for The Back-Up Trust, a charity that runs a range of services for people with spinal cord injury. The challenge is for each team to push, lift and carry a team member in a wheelchair to the top of Snowdon and back as quickly as possible. The round trip from the base of the mountain to the top is approximately 10 miles and the summit is 1,085 metres high, being the highest peak outside of Scotland in the British Isles. The Stewarts Law's team was lead by wheelchair user Daniel Turnbull (also a partner at Stewarts Law) and the rest of the team comprised: Ben Rogers (partner); Sam Longworth; Hugh Johnson; Laura Jenkins (solicitors); Conrad McDonald; Adam Flacks; Norma Cronin (trainee solicitors); Nick Hawkins; Emily Grimshaw (paralegals); Daniel Turnbull's brother, Nick Turnbull, and his girlfriend Helen Laidler; Susie Scorer (Daniel's fiancé and physiotherapist at Stoke Mandeville Hospital); and Rachel Harrison (physiotherapist at Stoke Mandeville Hospital).

Cyclone Mobility supplied the Stewarts Law wheelchair complete with racing car bucket seat and metal pole fixed to the back of the chair for pushing. The Stewarts Law team took 5 and a half hours to complete the challenge and were so quick on the final stretch that Daniel's gloves were burnt through as he breaked! The team finished 6th out of 16 teams, raised nearly £3500 in sponsorship and beat the Push record for money collected along the way on the mountain with over £150 in the charity bucket. The event itself raised over £50,000 for Back-Up.

Dragon Boat Race

On 8 September 2011 a team from Stewarts Law took part, for the fourth year running, in the Back-Up Dragon Boat challenge at London Docklands. This is a sprint event consisting of 2 x 250m races followed by a grand final, for the teams that achieved a qualifying time. About £15,000 was raised for Back-Up between the various crews. The event was won by the same team who won last year and there was added entertainment this year (thankfully no one was hurt) when one of the boats sank!

The Back-Up Trust aims to encourage independence, self-confidence and motivation following a life changing spinal cord injury and more information about the charity can be found on www.backuptrust.org.uk.