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Our fundraising department were delighted to accept a cheque for £1000 from the Roughleys Bikers at a presentation evening held at the Stockport Town Hall Tavern recently.

The Roughleys Bike Show was born over 10 years ago when Andy Roughley was working at the Bulls Head in Stockport market over the August Bank Holiday. To amuse himself he asked some of his mates to come down and meet up. For their entertainment they asked some of the market buskers to play a few tunes for them and the following year they included a motorbike show. 10 years later not only is there a bike show, but also live entertainment, stalls, childrens activities, food and refreshments – it just keeps getting bigger and better! Every year money raised through the Bike Show is donated to three local charities including the Together Trust.

Along with the money raised from their show, Rougleys also support the Together Trust’s Easter and Christmas Appeals. We never tire of greeting a whopping 500 bikers who roar their way onto the Together Trust’s Cheadle Campus with their donated items at certain times of the year!

Once again a huge thank you to Andy Roughley, Sam Henshaw and the rest of the crew for their continued support.

Brothers Jan and Caspar Harmens set out to climb Kilimanjaro this summer, in aid of the Together Trust. It’s hard to imagine a greater challenge. One brother made it to the top and one didn’t!

Caspar tells the story: “We started training in October 2009 with a walk in Macclesfield Forrest. One of us then attended the gym weekly, the other walked daily between bed, fridge and car!

Eventually, July 2010 we were ready, in Africa and meeting our guides, porters and cook at the bottom of the mountain. Getting to the summit – the emphasis was on climbing slowly to help our bodies acclimatise to the altitude. The scenery was “alpine” not quite what we had expected in Africa. The temperature was cool and great for walking.  Walking slowly worked well me but altitude sickness struck Jan and despite putting up a fight for several days, it was decided that it was not safe for him to continue. This was hard to accept but looking back it was for the best.

Continuing on, I crossed an area of “high desert” passing the remains of a plane crash which might have been eerie if I wasn’t so tired! That night I ate early and listened to the preparation talk. I slept a little and at 11pm we set off (the temperature was expected to fall as low as -15 degrees). Slowly, slowly I climbed. It was unbelievably exhausting. It took 6 hours to reach Gillman point (crater rim) then on to the highest point, Uhuru. The sun came up as I walked around the crater rim. It was spectacular, large and bright, illuminating first the summit, then the crater rim and finally reflecting off the clouds.

Finally I was there! Oxygen was sparse so I only had 15mins. I quickly got out my Together Trust T-shirt and posed for photo.

It took another hour sliding/walking to get back down to the camp and it was 8pm when we arrived at the hotel – we had been walking for the best part of 20 hours! It was a fantastic experience and a pleasure to raise money for such a great cause.

I would like to leave you with a this thought – If training to climb a mountain you might be interested to know that walking daily between your bed, fridge and car resulted in success!”

Well done both of you, what a fantastic effort – thank you for your support!