82-year-old to replicate climb of Table Mountain in her home for charity

An 82-year-old woman is using her stairs to recreate the 1,086 metre climb of Table Mountain that she first completed 42 years ago in order to raise money for Florence Nightingale Hospice.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Fundraiser Lucy Lester has calculated that climbing her stairs 440 times will equal the height of the mountain over-looking Cape Town in South Africa which she scaled on her 40th birthday – with the added bonus that she doesn't have to come all the way back down this time!

Remarkably, Lucy jumped out of a plane over the Namibian desert the day before her 80th birthday in 2017, and now the Wing resident is taking on another physical challenge in aid of Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity.

Alongside caring for her husband Keith full-time, Lucy has held an Afternoon Tea at the Queen’s Head in Wing for the past two years, and raised thousands of pounds for the Hospice.

Lucy LesterLucy Lester
Lucy Lester

This year, the coronavirus lockdown forced her to cancel her plans, and kept her cooped up indoors until Captain Tom Moore inspired her to do a new challenge.

Lucy said: “I got very fed up sitting here doing nothing, and then these things came in from the Hospice about needing money and I thought, well, I’ve got to do something! Forty-two years ago I climbed Table Mountain for my 40th birthday, so I thought I would re-create that challenge by climbing my stairs 440 times which equals the height of Table Mountain, 1,086 metres.”

“Someone asked me if I was going to do it all in one day, but I do need to remember that I had a stroke last year, so it’s not a good idea! So I have been doing it over the month of June, and I am nearly at the top of the mountain.”

“I’d like to raise £1,500, but this is a bad time for charity fundraising so I’m not getting my hopes up. We are up to £1,000 at the moment though, including a £50 contribution from my friends in South Africa with whom I walked up the real Table Mountain forty years ago, and a huge donation of £120 from The Little IT Company who look after my computer for me.”

If you would like to support Lucy’s fundraising, she has a justgiving page at: www.justgiving.com/lucy-lester3

Related topics: