The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Gutsy grandad Alan Clucas helped raise more than £8,000 for his Cowbit-based family by completing the gruelling Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge on Saturday.
Alan, along with daughter Victoria Darby and her husband Paul, successfully scaled Pen-y-Ghent (694m), Whernside (736m) and Ingleborough (723m) – with the ordeal taking 13-and-a-half hours.
The trio were helping raise money for Victoria’s Mia, Charlie and Me fund, set-up to aid her niece and nephew Mia and Charlie Clucas.
Mia, who is the daughter of Spalding Voice directors Andrew and Nikki Clucas, was born with the extremely rare Coffin-Siris Syndrome.
It has also been discovered that the two-year-old has a mutation in her PCDH12 gene, which is the first known case in Europe. Together, the genetic conditions have left her with an abnormal brain.
She is registered blind, has epilepsy, severe developmental delay, no motor skills and requires everything doing for her.
Her brother Charlie also has the PCDH12 gene mutation, despite undergoing extensive testing before being born.
At 13 weeks old, his prognosis is unknown.
Alan (63) said: “The whole family has been overwhelmed by the generosity, which will assist my son and his wife in looking after Mia and Charlie in the challenging years ahead.
“I found the experience incredibly challenging and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Victoria and Paul, who kept me going.
“My daughter felt pretty helpless in helping her brother and his wife with the care of Mia (and now Charlie) and set about a personal goal of raising £50,000 for Mia to make her life as comfortable as possible as she grows up.
“The three peaks challenge has raised an incredible £8,000 towards her target and I can’t thank everyone enough for their support.”
