The amazing dad who went up Pendle Hill and came down a mountain in memory of his mum

Pendle father Carl climbed Pendle Hill 54 times over three days to raise almost £9,000 for Pendleside Hospice in memory of his mum, Maureen Hodgson, who died in January this year.

The 54 laps of Pendle represented the year Carl’s mum was born and she would have been 65 on Saturday, May 18th.

The gruelling 28,930ft height climbed over the 33 painful hours walked was just 100ft short of the height of Mount Everest. In total Carl covered 82 miles, taking 213,244 energy-sapping steps and burned 12,840 calories.

He said: "I knew it would be a challenge, but never realised quite how tough it would be. Yet, I never did one lap alone.

“From 6am on day one I had an amazing support team of family and friends walking with me, talking to me and pushing me along.

“People I didn’t even know turned up to do a few laps because they knew my mum and wanted to share their own memories of her, while others had simply heard about the challenge and decided to do a lap or two and leave a donation.

“It truly was overwhelming and I can’t thank everyone enough.”

Carl did the first lap with dad Mark, taking a quiet minute at the trig point to remember Maureen. And while his brother Neil was unfortunately away working, he was constantly sending words of encouragement throughout the weekend.

He added: “Mum was one in a million and I'll always miss her. But every time I see, pass or walk up Pendle Hill from now on, it will remind me of her and everyone who supported and encouraged me over the three days. So, thank you, thank you all so much for your kind donations and words, it means a lot."

Carl did a lap of Pendle accompanied by his dog Herbie the morning after the challenge to reflect on the weekend and the fantastic money raised for extremely worthy charity.