Braving gusts of 50mph winds and at times zero visibility, Mark Orme who was fundraising for Ysbyty Gwynedd’s Special Care Baby Unit, managed to complete six routes of Snowdon in just over 20 hours, clocking 127,966 steps in the process.
The dad of three from Llandudno, said what kept him going was the thought of raising as much money as he could for the SCBU, where his premature newborn son was looked after so well when he was born earlier this year.
It has been a tough year for the Orme family as Mark’s wife, Nicola, was diagnosed with melanoma, a type of skin cancer that is often caused by too much sun exposure, in May.
The 34-year-old had been advised to get a mole checked out when visiting a nurse during her pregnancy. It had changed in recent months and had started to bleed. A biopsy was carried out and Nicola learnt it was melanoma the day builders arrived at their house to build a new extension.
A week before she was supposed to meet her consultant to discuss her treatment options, Nicola’s waters broke, and Lincoln, her baby son, was born prematurely by nine weeks.
Mark, who works for Conwy County Council as a Fitness Development Manager, said: “Lincoln spent a month in the special care baby unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd.
“When he was born he weighed 4lb 3oz but now he’s doing brilliantly well and he’s no different to any other baby of his age, the medics at the SCBU are very happy with him.
“As for Nicola it turned out that although there was just a small percentage of melanoma in the mole, unfortunately it was advanced and it had spread to her lymph glands in a minor why, and they’ve been taken out.”
Mark continues: “The cancer has now gone and she’s having immunotherapy treatment every six weeks for 12 months just as a precaution, she’s doing really well.”
Throughout this extremely challenging time, the family says what has really shone through is the “incredible professionalism, compassion and empathy” that has been shown to them by the various NHS staff that they have met during the past few months.
“In particular, the team on the SCBU ward at Ysbyty Gwynedd have cared for Lincoln so well and been kind and considerate to all of our family at every step of the way so far,” said Mark.
“Lincoln is the second of our three sons who has received care within SCBU at Ysbyty Gwynedd and for this reason I want to give something back and raise some funds for the unit through Awyr Las, the North Wales NHS Charity.”
Mark set himself up for the extremely tough challenge to walk up Snowdon, within 36 hours.
On 19 October he started his epic hike during challenging weather conditions, walking with a work colleague, Zak Young, going up first on the Llanberis Path, taking him three hours, eight minutes, then he undertook the Pyg track, in a very impressive three hours, then it was the Miners Track, which took Mark three hours 39 minutes, and then the Snowdon Ranger Path, in three hours twenty one minutes and on Thursday, the Watkin Path in four hours and four minutes and because of the terrible weather conditions he decided not to take the Rhyd Du pass and decided instead to go up the Llanberis Path again, taking three hours and thirty one minutes.
He has raised so far an incredible £1,740 through his Just Giving page.
“It was a tough challenge but I’d do it all over again and I’m already thinking what to do next,” said Mark.
“The whole thing was made easier by a friend lending me their camper van so I could take breaks, eat and get some sleep.”
“The Wednesday wasn’t too bad but getting myself going again on the Thursday morning was pretty tough as the weather had worsened, the Watkin Pass was the toughest for me and the Pyg track was my favourite because it was just so scenic,” he added.”
Mark added: “I’d like to thank Alun Pritchard and Howard Vaughan who walked a couple of the routes with me, and Matthew Williams who lent me the camper van”.
