Twin brothers Drew and Lee take on Ben Nevis climb in memory of their dad

The brothers decided to complete the arduous climb to raise money for the Butterfly Hospice, where their dad John ‘Mitch’ Mitchell spent his final days before passing away just over a year ago.

Despite worse than expected weather conditions, Drew and Lee battled through and completed the climb – and have already exceeded their £250 fundraising target

Drew said: “The climb went well but weather conditions were worse than we initially expected, with constant rain with a few breaks, and the about half way up we encountered heavy snow which got worse the higher we went.

“When we reached the top visibility was very poor with about three-quarter of a foot of snow. We were cold, wet & very tired throughout but we kept pushing on - and the views on the way up even with the poor conditions were just outstanding.

“We felt absolutely exhausted after we had finished; we had never climbed a mountain of that size before but it was well worth it. I would recommend anyone to give it a go as Scotland and what it has to offer is stunning.”

They decided to climb it in dad Mitch’s memory a year after he passed on in the hospice, after he had initially been in Pilgrim Hospital battling various illnesses.

“The hospice provides such a good standard of care to everyone in their care and was so good to our Dad during his stay so we decided to give something back,” said Drew. We took collections at our dad’s funeral which were donated to the hospice last year,” said Drew

“As dad was a proud Scottish man I put it to my brother that we should climb Ben Nevis on the anniversary of his passing and try to raise money for the hospice; they really so heavily on peoples donations and it’s such a worthwhile cause.”

He said he now intends to do a fund raiser every year at around the same time in their dad’s memory to help raise as much as possible for the Hospice.

The brothers set a target of £250 and have already raised £265. With people still donating they plan to leave the Just Giving page open for a while longer to get as much as possible for the hospice. The web address of the page is https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/drew-mitchell?utm_term=nyaj6W5k2