Press release posted 16 March 2022

2 Manchester sisters are embarking on the challenge of a lifetime to climb Mount Snowdon through the night to raise money for The Christie. 

Emma Williams, from Timperley, and Louise Burn, from Stockton Heath, are taking on the epic trek with their mum Patricia Jones, to raise funds for the specialist cancer centre, where their dad Ian is currently being treated for bowel cancer. 

Emma, who will complete the hike overnight on her 42nd birthday in June, said: “It’s fair to say that Dad has been extremely humbled and touched by the professionalism, kindness and humility he’s been shown by everyone at The Christie.
“It was this kindness and unrivalled support that made Mum, Louise and I want to give something back to The Christie and when Louise saw that there was a charity challenge to climb Snowdon in June, we all jumped at the chance to take part!”

Both mums of 2 children, Emma is a PR consultant, and Louise is a lawyer. 

Ian, aged 66 and a retired dentist, lives in Pembrokeshire and travels to The Christie, staying in a nearby holiday home whilst receiving treatment. He has already received radiotherapy, and has recently started a course of chemotherapy before his doctors decide if surgery will be necessary. 

Louise added: “Ordinarily, I think we’d relish the opportunity to climb Wales’ highest mountain – something that’s been on the to-do list for a while – but the added factor of doing it at night is leaving us both nervous and excited at the prospect ahead.
“However, Mum made the very good point that climbing a mountain in the dark is exactly what cancer patients face every single day and if Dad can do it with such grace and courage then we can certainly overcome the 9-hour challenge in the same way. So far, we’ve been overwhelmed by people’s support and generosity and hope to raise as much money as we can in the build-up to 25 June. It’s going to take an awful lot of sugar, caffeine and encouragement from one another to get us up and back, but we’ll do it and we’ll do it for Dad and every other family touched by The Christie.” 

Places are still available for The Christie’s Snowdon at Night challenge. Liz Brunold, sporting events coordinator at The Christie, said: “We still have places available for this epic challenge, which is sure to be the night of a lifetime. We wish all our trekkers well, including Emma, Louise and Patricia, and we’d love for even more people to join us.”

For more information, visit our Snowdon at Night page.

The Christie charity supports the work of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust providing enhanced services over and above what the NHS funds. This includes money for care and treatment, research, education and extra patient services. Gifts from the public make a huge difference to the care and treatment that The Christie is able to provide to patients and their families. 

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust was the first specialist trust to be rated as ‘Outstanding’ twice (in 2016 and 2018) by the health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It referred to The Christie as ‘a leader in cancer care’ and ‘a pioneer in developing innovative solutions to cancer care.’ The CQC praised the Trust’s staff which it said ‘go the extra mile to meet the needs of patients and their families’ and that they were ‘exceptionally kind and caring.’ In 2017, the CQC rated The Christie as the best specialist trust in the country, and one of the top three trusts overall in England.