Three sisters are taking on the challenge of walking to the top of south Wales’ tallest mountain to raise money for the hospice which cared for their mother before she died of cancer. But they’re not just doing it once - they’re doing it five times, in one day, to mark the fifth anniversary of her death.
Lleucu, Erin and Ffion Walters will walk to the peak of Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons next month, and back down again, five times in a row, without more than a drinks break in between. That’s a combined climb of more than 10,000 feet, and a combined walk of around 20 miles. You can keep up to date with the latest Carmarthenshire news by signing up to the local newsletter here.
The challenge, taking place on September 17, will be almost five years to the day that their mother, Mandy Walters, died at their Carmarthen home after a long and brave battle with a brain tumour. It was a battle that had started almost 20 years earlier, in 2000, when her cancer was first confirmed. Tests, diagnoses, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, all-clears and relapses all became a part of life in the ensuing years, before finally nothing else could be done.
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“She had been given the all-clear in around 2010, but in 2014 her behaviour changed and a routine scan and then a biopsy confirmed that another tumour in her brain had been found,” said Lleucu, the eldest of Mandy’s three daughters at 28 years old. “She had chemotherapy and radiotherapy again for a year or so but it was considered a big risk to operate given the location of the tumour.
"In the end we went to a specialist hospital in London for the operation in September 2016, but we knew that she would not be cured fully at that stage; the operation was done to prolong her life and extend the amount of time we had with her before she died.
“For around six months after that, although someone had to be with her all the time, she was quite capable of doing things on her own and was still receiving treatment, but by around April 2017, doctors told us that there was nothing else that they could really do, and she began to deteriorate over the next few months. That’s when we as a family started taking her to Skanda Vale Hospice.”
Skanda Vale is a charity project established to offer free care and support to families affected by life-limiting illnesses. Based near Llandysul in north Carmarthenshire, the hospice is funded by donations and is run predominately by volunteers. When Mandy was in the final months of her life, her family would take her there so that she could receive palliative care and, most of all, so that she could be looked after and be made to feel special by “the nicest and most caring people in the world”.
“Everyone who looked after Mam was amazing,” said Lleucu. “The carers who came to the house, the nurses....but the people at Skanda Vale are the most unbelievable people I have ever met in my life. They did more than just care for her; they would ask what she wanted to do.They did things for her that we couldn’t do - nothing was too much for them.”
Lleucu was only 23 and her sisters - twins Erin and Ffion - were only 20 when Mandy died, at home, on September 20, 2017, at the age of 50. Now, five years on, they want to do something memorable to honour their mother’s life, and to raise money for the people and the organisation that helped to look after her in those precious final few months. Two of the sisters and their Auntie Ruth (Mandy’s sister) have already done a trial run of the Pen y Fan climb last weekend. “It was OK,” said Lleucu. “But that was just once!”. In under a month’s time, that will need to be repeated five times.
“We all wanted to do something for Mam’s anniversary and to raise money for the hospice,” she added. “Because it’s been five years, my sister came up with the idea of doing Pen y Fan five times in a day, and we wanted to do something that was going to be a challenge. I think we’re going to set off for the first one at sunrise, and maybe have a small break in between.
"When we did it once last week I felt fine when we got back to the bottom but as soon as I sat down in the car I started to feel tired! So there will be absolutely no sitting down between each time we go up and back down."
Family members and friends are also being invited to join the sisters on their epic hike, with the hope that around 20 people will take part in at least some of the challenge. An initial fundraising target of £1,000 was surpassed in just one day, with all proceeds going to Skanda Vale. If you want to donate to the fundraising appeal you can do so here. Lleucu added: “We just want to raise some money for the hospice and at the same time do something together that we will remember as a family.”
That shouldn’t be a problem, as climbing to the highest point in south Wales five times in one morning and afternoon is not something anyone is likely to ever forget.
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