I am having a great deal of fun at the moment organising an event called ‘Climb For Kendal’. The original idea came about when we were discussing the importance of the Kendal Mountain Film Festival to the Town; internationally I believe it to be the 2nd most important festival of its type. However its importance is little understood by our local community.

So I came up with the idea of holding a Mayor’s charity event during the Mountain Film Festival which could be fun, inclusive and hopefully create a greater awareness. My original idea was to climb from the Town Hall up to the top of Beast Banks as many times as would be the equivalent ascent up Scafell Pike.

It has some what escalated from there! We are now setting up a proper Everest base camp at the top of Finkle Street in the bird cage and ascending up to the green at Beast Banks as many times as the height of Mount Everest. As you can simply see I would be hard pushed to accomplish this myself between 10am and 4pm on the day, so the idea is, I encourage as many members of the community as possible to come along and join in, we need to do 177 ascents, any more would set a target to beat for future years if the event were to go ahead another year.

The Kendal Mountain rescue will be on hand to stretcher me down later in the afternoon when I am flagging! The Judo club are going to carry me down in a chair at some point- (I hope they are strong) and Asda are going to join in pushing a trolley!

These are just a few of the ideas; many more are flooding in. Anyone can come along on the day and join in, we are starting at 10am and finishing at 4pm. If you are part of a group and a few of you intend to join in the fun, just let the Town Council office know roughly how many any what time. It would be difficult if everyone came at 10am.

I am hoping to raise money via any donations on the day, say £2 to take part and by local business sponsorships of £50. If you have a business and would like to have your company logo on the logo boards for all to see, ring me via the Town Council and I will get back to you.

An individual can also receive sponsors for the event and I can supply the forms.

The Town Council Telephone number is 01539 717496 or email a message to Admin @ Kendal Town Council This will prove to be a real fun event; other Towns hold pram races, duck races, and Kendal will of course have a different approach - to climb!

My charities are Manna House – a local homeless charity and a Kendal Youth project.