CARING student Ella McGovern and her family raised more than five times their goal for Rossendale Hospice by scaling Ben Nevis in Scotland.
Year 10 student Ella, 14, from Helmshore, along with her parents Louise and Rockey and older cousins Beth, Sarah and Jamie Robertson, scaled Britain’s highest peak in just four hours.
They chose to raise funds for the hospice because of the support and counselling that it provided for a number of our students after the MEN Arena bombing.
Ella and her family’s initial fundraising target was £300 – in the end almost £1,600 was raised.
Ella said: “We went up to Scotland the day before and stayed overnight. When we were climbing Ben Nevis it was really slippy because it was raining. It was hard going because it was rocky and quite scary because it was so slippy.
“When we got to the top it was really cold and my cousin had frost in his beard. It was a great relief to get to the top and although it was quite foggy you could make out some of the view.
“Our group then split up because we went down the mountain at different paces. On the way back we had to cross a waterfall and it was still very slippy.”
Ella is no stranger to fundraising having taken part in a midnight walk and a tough Pretty Mudder challenge.
She has previously climbed Snowdon, but has yet to decide on her next challenge!