Mick achieves highest ambition for charity

CCTV drainage engineer Mick Bradley realised a life-long ambition and raised hundreds of pounds for a local cancer charity when he reached the highest point in the UK.

Mick, who works at the Lanes Group Eastleigh depot, near Southampton, took up the challenge to walk to the top of Ben Nevis in Scotland in aid of The Isabel Baker Foundation. He has raised over £300, with many Lanes colleagues sponsoring his effort.

The charity, based in Christchurch, Dorset, helps parents bereaved by the death of a child from cancer. It was set up by the parents of Isabel Baker, who was diagnosed with leukaemia when she was three weeks old, and died the week before her 1^st birthday.

As a proud Scotsman, who has worked for Lanes Eastleigh for seven years, Mick had always wanted to climb Ben Nevis, and his desire to help the charity gave him the final nudge to realise his ambition.

Mick, aged 53, hiked up and down the 4,411-ft high peak, near Fort William, in seven hours – which included a long stop at the top to recover and enjoy stunning views – with his brother-in-law, Gerry Shields.

He said: “It was gruelling at times. I haven’t walked up a mountain like that before, but I had always wanted to climb Ben Nevis, and it was very much worth doing, both for the charity and as a personal challenge.”

In fact, Mick now has the walking bug. He planned to walk 14 miles from Lulworth Cove to Weymouth in Dorset along the Jurassic Coast, another first.

He said: “Walking up Ben Nevis made me realise now’s a good time to do more to stay fit, and going out walking is a free way to exercise and enjoy some stunning views.”