Ben Wyvis or bust as plucky paediatric physiotherapist takes on 130 mountains to mark life milestone
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An intrepid Highland woman has a mountain to climb to raise vital children's charity funds - or to be accurate she is tackling 130 peaks in her incredible challenge.
Paediatric physiotherapist Katy Boocock is celebrating her 60th birthday by climbing all 130 ‘Archies’ in Scotland to raise much needed funds for The Archie Foundation.
She is taking more than 2 million steps and climbing 85,000 metres to raise £2000 and possible more.
The incredible challenge will see Katy undertake the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, not once but almost 10 times!
The term ‘Archies’ is a metric take on Munros, which are traditionally measured in feet. The Archies are over 1000m high and have a drop of 100m on all sides.
By the time Katy has completed her challenge she will have covered around 1,700km, which roughly equates to walking from Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital in Aberdeen to Barcelona.
Katy’s challenge began on June 1 when she climbed Ben Ime near Loch Lomond.
Not only is Katy climbing every one of the 130 Archies, she is also walking, running, canoeing and cycling her way between them too.
Katy hopes to raise £2,000 for the children’s charity. The funds will be used to support local sick children and their families when and where they need it most – including at the most basic level funding travel to and from hospital for families who, thanks to the cost of living crisis, are having to make the stark choice between putting fuel in the car to take their child to an appointment or putting food on the table.
She said: “I’ve worked as a paediatric physiotherapist for 25 years and have seen first-hand the work that The Archie Foundation does and the fantastic support they provide to children and their families.
"This challenge is something I can do to raise awareness of The Archie Foundation and hopefully vital funds."
This isn’t the first time that the Archies have featured in a fundraising attempt. In 2015, Katy was part of a team, led by Dr Paul Fettes, which completed the Archies Mountain Challenge - a relay which covered all of the Archies, and the terrain in between them, in two weeks.
Paul explained: “I cannot overstate how massive a challenge Katy has taken on. When we did the Archie Challenge in 2015, we had 57 participants in our relay. Katy is doing this on her own.
"It’s inspiring to think that at 60 she is taking on a challenge of this scale. And not only that, she is choosing to raise awareness and funds for The Archie Foundation.”
A very enthusiastic hill runner and cyclist, Katy decided to celebrate her big birthday today (July 4) in spectacular style.
She said: “It is a significant milestone and one that I wanted to mark. I’m a very active person and love the great outdoors.
“I took part in the original Archies challenge a few years ago, for me it’s a natural progression to want to try and complete the challenge on my own, and what better way to mark my birthday!”
Lochnagar was Katy’s 65th Archie of the challenge and marked the halfway point of her amazing effort. Now well over halfway through her challenge, Katy aims to complete this challenging feat on July 8 when she will summit Ben Wyvis before taking a well-earned break.
Paula Cormack, chief executive of the Archie Foundation, said: "Katy is just amazing. The challenge she is undertaking is simply phenomenal. It is thanks to people like Katy that The Archie Foundation can do so much to support children and their families across North Scotland.
“We provide a vast array of support and services across Grampian, the Highlands and Tayside. This ranges from major capital appeals that will transform the clinical environment families see when they visit healthcare facilities, to delivering bereavement support to help families through heartbreaking times, to providing a cup of tea that offers an anxious parent a moment of calm and respite.
“We couldn’t do any of this without the help of our amazing supporters. We’re completely blown away by Katy’s amazing Archies challenge and are truly delighted that she has chosen to support its namesake charity.”
Katy's JustGiving page can be found here:
You can follow Katy’s progress by visiting https://share.garmin.com/share/4DHC2 and using the password katyboo
