Charity Challenge – Mount Aconcagua!

Over the past 15 years the families and coaches of Destination Judo have raised around £250,000 for a wide range of charitable causes.

The latest in our series of challenges sees Marc Preston heading off with his ice axe and crampons to Argentina to scale the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas.

Mount Aconcagua is in the Andes, the highest mountain in the Americas – and both the Western and Southern Hemispheres, with a summit elevation of 6,962 metres (In comparison, Ben Nevis is 1,345m and Mount Everest is 8,848m).

On 30th November Marc will be joining an expedition for just over 3 weeks to scale the mountain and raise what he can in Sponsorship money.  As with all Marc’s Charity Challenges he is self-funding the trip.

He’s doing this to support a charity close to our hearts. Finlay’s Friends.

The charity was set up in memory of Finlay Bennett who attended Destination Judo’s club in Dunfermline. Finlay died suddenly from meningitis in 2014 at the Yorkhill Children’s Hospital. He was 8.

His family set up Finlay’s Friends shortly afterwards to provide support to families who find themselves in similar situations: families of seriously ill children who have been admitted to hospital in an emergency. They provide ‘comfort kits’ which include essentials to tide over families for the first 24-48 hours – including snacks, toiletries, phone charger, notebook, blanket etc

The charity currently works in 5 children’s hospitals on Scotland.

In tandem with this, the judo children have supported the initiative by doing a sponsored event in class.