Congratulations to Chrissie O'Callaghan and Mark Leedale of Puttenham Golf Club who took on and conquered two monumental challenges to raise money for charity. Both had extremely different journeys to complete their goals. Chrissie O’Callaghan, as part of a group, took on the Three Peak Challenge to reach the summits of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon for the charity MIND, and Mark Leedale took on a feet of amazing endurance to cycle from Newcastle upon Tyne to London, a trip of 315 miles for the On-Course Foundation. Amazingly both challenges were completed in the same time of 29 hours. Chrissie said of her experience “Although we had aimed to complete the challenge in 24 hours we managed to achieve a time of just under 29 hours which we all thought was still a huge accomplishment. I have never experienced anything like this before and after relaxing with some celebratory champagne it finally started to sink in what we had achieved. Not only was it an amazing experience but I raised over £1000 for the charity MIND which is a charity close to my heart. Thank you to all the members of Puttenham Golf Club for your donations". Mark Leedale was one of 750 cyclists that set out on this epic journey from Newcastle to London. Nearly 500 people dropped out along the way as they battled against high winds and driving rain but Mark was one of the 256 cyclists that managed to make it to their destination.
Mark raised over £2000 for the On-Course Foundation which is a charity that helps the recovery of injured service personnel through the game of golf. Mark said “the pain was so acute with about 60 miles to go that I cannot even begin to explain my thoughts. At the finishing line at Smithfield’s Market I simply could not bend over to collect my day bag which was on the floor. What kept me going was that the wounded men and women of the armed forces probably endure that sort of agony for much of their lives and we at Puttenham Golf Club have at least done some fundraising to help them."
