Finleigh Conquers Three Peaks

A Jersey woman says she feels a huge sense of pride after climbing the highest mountains in England, Scotland, and Wales within 24 hours.

The Three Peaks Challenge involves reaching the top of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Snowdon.

Ben Nevis is the highest of the three - standing at 4,413ft above sea level.

Finleigh Donald conquered all of them in a time of 23 hours and 44 minutes.

She has raised nearly £1,500 for Jersey Hospice Care and Dementia Jersey, two charities close to her heart.

Her mum passed away in 2015 after being diagnosed with cancer and her beloved 'papa' died from dementia last year.

Finleigh says she feels a huge sense of relief and achievement.

"I'm very proud of myself. It was a huge challenge to do both mentally and physically, I feel like I've done my family proud and I've raised a lot of money for my designated charities.

Physically my feet and my legs are in bits, I definitely could be doing with some new kneecaps at this point!"

The energy-sapping effort was made even more difficult by having to battle through snowstorms, fog, darkness, torrential rain, and gale-force winds.

Finleigh admits the mental challenge was probably as hard if not harder than the physical one.

"It really was mind over matter at some points because when you're on a time schedule and we were told if you don't speed up you might not make it, it's even more of a mental drag to get you there.

At the hardest points I just kept telling myself to keep going, I had my mum and papa in my thoughts really pushing me.

That's another reason why I tried to do something for charity too because when you do feel like giving up, you know that it's not just yourself that you let down per se, you've got a lot riding on it and a lot of people have donated and I really wanted to do everybody proud - especially my mum and my papa and be able to turn around to my two chosen charities and say not only did I raise it, I raised it and I actually completed it."

Finleigh is now back in Jersey.

She says she's been blown away by the overwhelming support she's received.

"This isn't the first challenge I've done and every time I put something out there and say I'm going to do something, the in-pour of love and support and well-wishes is just astronomical really.

It's really selfless of people to donate and to send messages of kindness and support to spur me on.

Even though my mum and my papa are in my thoughts whenever I do these types of challenges, it's everybody else too that got me through it as well climbing those mountains, just knowing I had great support from friends and family and the wider community too.

People don't realise that every like and comment that they put on a post means so much more than the time that it takes of them to do that."

Despite only just returning to the island, Finleigh admits she is already thinking about what challenge to take on next.

She says there's a few ideas on her mind.

"A lot of them have been quite physical challenges in the last couple of years. There was one I did back in 2018, we put on a show at the Opera House for Jersey Hospice Care in memory of my mum and I sang for the whole audience.

That was a completely different challenge. I'd like to do something a little bit different from a physical challenge but I have a few up my sleeve as well that I'd like to take on.

White Collar Boxing is on the cards for sure, maybe even another mountain climb. Mont Blanc or Kiliminjaro are on the list now I've conquered Ben Nevis!

This won't be the last challenge and it won't be the last time that I will be raising money for some incredible local charities."

You can still donate here.