Student's non-stop three peaks challenge raises thousands for The Christie

BA Television and Radio Production student Jess Larbalestier inspired her fellow students, lecturers, University staff and students from other universities to get involved in her epic challenge from Tuesday 5 May to Wednesday 6 May in which she scaled Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon without stopping.

She completed the challenge with three different groups on the three different mountains in 32 hours and the collective hikers have raised over £4,700 - vast eclipsing the initial £3000 target.

Jess set up the challenge to support The Christie due to the care it has proved to her mum Helen over the last three years since she was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer.

Having previously raised over £3300 for the hospital back in September 2023 through a skydive, she set herself the enormous challenge this month and enlisted support from 22 people in total, including her lecturer Jimmy Ewing who decided to run rather than hike the peaks, accomplishing the feat in just under 24 hours.

Jess said: “It’s been an absolute adventure.

“I found it really tough in places but the adrenaline of just keeping myself going and doing each mountain with a different set of people really helped.

“The key thing was ensuring that we all had a positive mindset and just focused on putting one step in front of the other. Scafell Pike was the most mentally challenging part as me and my dad did that in the middle of the night but we got through it and seeing how much we raised when we got to the top of Snowdon meant the world to me.”

Jess’ challenge began in Scotland at Ben Nevis, where she was joined by friends and a group of radio colleagues from Fusion Radio of the University of Strathclyde, who she had met at the Student Radio Association’s 2026 conference in Salford last month.

She then drove down to the Lake District to take on Scafell Pike in the early hours of Wednesday morning with her dad before driving down to Snowdon in Wales where she completed the challenge with 11 others.

The challenge was supported by the University’s Utter Radio, who ran a 32-hour live broadcast tracking her journey and after sharing news of her challenge to others at the conference, she was able to enlist support and air time from eight other student radio stations.

Jess added: “I am so grateful for the charity broadcast at Utter and all the other stations that got behind the challenge. It meant we got the story out there across the UK and it was so heartening to see the updates of donations coming in from all over as we were hiking.”

Jimmy, a Lecturer in Media Production, decided to tackle the challenge with Jess when he first heard about her story earlier this year, having also seen his late mum Anne go through cancer treatment.

He completed his challenge in 23 hours, 59 minutes, rushing to the finish line at the top of Snowdon having set himself a 24-hour goal.

He said: “It was absolutely brilliant – one of the best experiences of my life and I am so glad I did it.

“I was really up against the clock getting to Snowdon and when I arrived, I had just over an hour to get to the summit which was gruelling but I got there.

"I’m so proud of Jess and all the students that got involved in this. Jess really rallied so many people from around the University to get involved and it’s brilliant that its raised so much for The Christie."