Fundraising news

China Challenge

May 2007

Awesome, inspiring, exhausting - just some of the sentiments expressed by our team of 14 supporters on their return from the Great Wall of China trek.

The group reaches the top.

Their adventure began on Saturday 19 May when they met up with 10 team members from other charities and set off for Bejing. With just a short time to recover from the journey, five demanding days lay ahead, trekking on mainly un-restored parts of the Great Wall far from the normal tourist routes. Said Lynne Powell, RABI's welfare manager and China trek team member, "We trained hard to prepare ourselves, spent months fundraising and many of us met for the very first time at the airport. What we experienced was something that went far beyond our expectations."

 

             

They made it to the end.                       This is what they tackled.

                        

An unrestored section of the wall

The intrepid RABI supporters.

It was the vastness of the landscape, the inspiring views, the sense of achievement at conquering challenging parts of the wall (which was, after all, never built to be accommodating) and the team spirit which rapidly developed that were the overriding observations from the group.

Rising to the physical demands of the trek was only part of the challenge; each team member pledged to raise at least £2,500. At the time of writing, our RABI supporters have exceeded their target, achieving at least £54,000. Thanks to them, our first overseas fundraising challenge has been an outstanding success.

                  

An unrestored section.                    A rather damp day's walking!

 

The Heavenly Steps

 

and the end!

We are keen to hear from anyone who would like to follow in the footsteps of our pioneers and undertake an overseas challenge (China or elsewhere) in 2008 contact Lise Venthen on 01865 724931.

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