Thornhill Lass Lorna To Climb Criffel 18 Times In 24 Hours For Charity

24 year old Lorna Hellem from Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway has been climbing the equivalent height of Mount Everest every month this year, raising funds for Mayo Roscommon Hospice foundation in Ireland, in memory of her Uncle Martin Murray, who she sadly lost in October last 2021. Now Lorna has set herself a new challenge of climbing Criffel 18 times in 24 hours, which is the equivalent of climbing the same height the Highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. 

Lorna was born in Yorkshire and moved to Dumfries and Galloway in 2008 and started school at Wallace Hall, she then went on to study chemistry at the university of Glasgow in 2015 and graduated with her undergrad degree in 2019, Now Lorna is doing a PhD in chemistry at Glasgow uni, But she still comes home to Thornhill, every weekend because she loves the Dumfries and Galloway countryside a lot more than the city.

Lorna told DGWGO “My Uncle lived in Ireland and we live over here, we didn’t see him very much but he still meant a lot to me. He was the most loving person I know and I never felt as loved as I did when I was around him when he came here to visit or when we went to Ireland. Every time his name was mentioned in conversation throughout my life I felt a wave of love and admiration for him.

When we went to Ireland in November last year, I knew I wanted to do something in his memory. I have been a member of Hartfell Hill Running Club (HHRC) since 2020, and my challenge was inspired by a fellow member who climbed the height of everest every month in 2021.”

She Continued “Because I want to end the year with a big challenge, I have decided I want to do my last Everesting in one go, doing reps up Criffel. I will have to do 18 reps, which will be approximately 63 miles. I’m hoping to complete this within 24 hours and for it to be a verified Everesting I can’t have any sleep throughout the challenge. I am planning to start on the 2nd of December and finish in daylight on the 3rd of December. I know it will be a MASSIVE challenge, but I know that the love I feel for Uncle Martin and his closest family will drive to to keep going.”

Lorna told DGWGO more about the challenge “I have mostly ran on the lowther hills, which I am very lucky they are just behind my parents house. I’ve done some running in Glasgow as well in the Kilpartick hills. My running club does a lot of running in Moffat so I’ve done some of my climbing there as well.

I have chosen the Criffel mostly because of the tourist path which makes it easier to run up. It is quite a steep hill as well which means I can get height in without having to go very far, but not too steep that it is impossible to climb.

I will always have members of my running club running and friends with me as support runners throughout the challenge. Some members of the club and family members have offered to be ground support to make the challenge run smoother. My plan is to have as many people on the hill as possible and see how many Everests can be done between everyone in the time frame of my challenge by adding all our elevation gain together. It would be lovely to have as many people there cheering me on as possible and we will have a donation bucket in the car park on the day. “

If you would like to donate, Lorna has a just giving page for donations, the link is: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lorna-hellam-everest12

All donations of any size will be very much appreciated and will really help, Thank you all for any support.