Sam recently climbed Mount Snowdon in North Wales and raised over £600!
In her own words, Sam explains why she wanted to embark on this challenge and what it meant for her:
“Climbing Snowdon was pretty terrifying for the last hour as the wind was so strong! We chose the Ranger Path and were the only people climbing that path at 7am in the morning! Plenty of sheep though! We arrived at the summit at 9.30. In the picture you have of me crawling up the steps to the summit my husband is crawling alongside me to keep me going and reassure me that I was not going to be blown off! Even those wise words couldn’t make me stand at the top! It was freezing cold and extremely windy! I was accompanied by my husband, Leighton and my brother, Ben.
I chose the to walk up Snowdon as I am scared of heights. I could have raised money by doing a run but wanted to chose something that was out of my comfort zone as that is something that Oxfordshire Mind have helped me to try and deal with.
I have always been scared of heights and flying as a lot of people are but following 2 car accidents within a year of each other I became terrified of any sort of transport so much so that I would avoid going anywhere. With a 10 year old daughter, I felt like my fears were affecting my life and the life of my family. My GP gave me the number for Oxfordshire Mind and I took the brave step of making that call! I was referred for group CBT. I was sceptical at first but it has been life changing for me. I was taught how to challenge the thoughts that go through my mind and to use different techniques to analyse my thoughts and break them down into manageable steps. There is no ‘cure’ but life becomes easier everyday!
So not only have I climbed Mount Snowdon, I have been in a car for the long 6 hours it took us to get here and much more since. Thank you Oxfordshire Mind!”
Thank you Sam and an amazing achievement!
