Cumbrian Challenge 2019 - RESULTS

Ex military beneficiaries from Walking With The Wounded's programmes in Aldershot, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester took part shoulder to shoulder with 500+ fundraisers at our seventh Cumbrian Challenge. 

A special guest visitor in the form of an Apache helicopter landed at the event ground in Grasmere to cheer on five teams of staff from Morson Group (which service the aircraft at the Army Airfield in Wattisham) - but the real action was on the fell as the clouds lifted and the forecast rain fell away.

Last year's runners up on the longest 'Tougher' route, "FDM Manic Feet Creatures" led by Will Eeles, finally claimed the crown ahead of 2017 winners "Timu Haraka", while RAF Honington held off the challenge of 7 Bn REME to retain the best military team and "Mobile Dog Groomers" led the way on the Tough route. Most significantly, the "AEGIS Mountain Goats" led by Glen Pilkington (who has taken part in every Cumbrian Challenge to date) won the highest fundraising team award.

The event has raised more than £1m for the charity and will see it's 1,000th team take part in 2020. This year participants took part in one of three routes alongside teams of our beneficiaries - the Peak (16km), the Tough (24km) or the Tougher (32km) - with the latter featuring nine summits before the finish.

Each team is challenged to fundraise £2k to support a veteran back into society and this year's event has already surpassed £150k in donations. There were mulitiple teams from the event sponsors FDM and BAE Systems, both holders of the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award as part of their commitments to the Armed Forces Covenant, and significant numbers once more from long-standing supporters such as Birketts, Arqiva, Shard Capital, WYG, Morson Group, Yodel, Generator Power and Latitude Group (now owned by Jellyfish). We also saw new faces from the likes of Amazon, Morgan Sindall, Cotton Traders, Vallis Group, Irwin Mitchell, VGC, Cote Restaurants, West Port, Gasway, Mclaughlin & Harvey, Hive Centrica and many others - who are all featured on our event fundraising leaderboard. 

In the Friday night safety briefings teams heard from beneficiaries like former homeless veteran Duncan Welton from Aldershot and WWTW employment advisor in Glasgow, William Cairns, to highlight the impact of the money raised at the event. And the beneficiary teams taking part wore blue t-shirts to mark them out for conversation with fundrdaisers. The volunteer team also included beneficiaries, although was one man down on Friday and Saturday as one man phoned to say he couldn't make it as he had secured a job and would be working on Saturday - highlighting how our programmes are proving successful. 

There were many great stories from the event including Morson Bobcats sweeping up a stray who had been dropped by her team and escorting her home as part of their own, and the three teams from the fitness group, Trail Tribe, who rallied around an injured member of their own to ensure she completed the event even though it kept them all out on the hill until late in the day - but they earned a huge round of applause when they made it back to the marquee. There was also Team Lee, who had told their supporters they would be walking 20 miles, so when their app showed that the route was slightly under this they did laps of the marquee with their medals and finish-line beers to ensure they hit the distance and respected the ask of those who had been donating to them.

2020 is the 10th anniversary of Walking With The Wounded and if you missed out this year and are inspired to take part, or walked the event and want to come back for more, or looking for a way for your company to showcase its commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant then please register your interest at www.cumbrianchallenge.org and we'll be in touch when entries open. There will be a special reward for the first 50 team leaders to step forward once more.

Many thanks to everyone who took part, everyone who donated to them and the volunteers who gave up their weekends to make it happen. 

Photos and film to follow this week. 

PRIZES

Highest Fundraising

• AEGIS London

Tougher

• Winner: FDM - Manic Feet Creatures
• Best military team: RAF Honington
• First female team:  Birketts - The Peakettes
• Over 50s: The Lowlanders

Tough

• Winner: Mobile Dog Groomers
• First Female Team: team MIHP
• Over 50s: England's Fusiliers 

Peak

• Winner: Aggreko

Best Fancy Dress

• FDM Peaky Blinders

FULL RESULTS

Big thanks to our presenting partners FDM and BAE Systems, and supporting partners, Morson, Gasway, AEGIS London, Generator Power, BJ Metals, Keswick Brewery, Grasmere Brewery and Heineken.

Cover pic: Dan Sutty and his team at the event. 

Want to take part in 2020? Pre-register for the 2020 Cumbrian Challenge