We’ve had another fantastic year of challenges here at Charity Challenge and it’s not just our participants who come away with life-changing memories. Our Challenge Leaders work hard all year round to ensure your challenges are as enjoyable, safe and successful as possible. As well as leading groups through beautiful and challenging landscapes, our leaders get to witness your hard work in action, help you towards your finish lines and hear your amazing fundraising stories along the way.

Read on to hear some favourite 2024 highlights from the team at Charity Challenge…

In March, I took part in the Dalai Lama Himalayan Trek in India, a challenge that we have operated for 25 years but one that I had not yet managed to take part in. 

It was my first visit to the Indian Himalaya, the first time I had trekked with our local support team in India (some of whom had worked for the company for 14 years). I got to know them and hear about their lives and their families. It was really special. 

During the challenge, I was honoured to have the chance to meet His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and also to visit the incredible Taj Mahal. 

We visited temples and monasteries and trekked through remote villages. The scenery on the challenge is truly stunning, the food was absolutely delicious, the snow-capped mountains so vast and peaceful, with huge Himalayan Griffons (vultures) flying high in the skies above. 

It was an open challenge with some truly incredible people taking part. All had their chosen charities with some unbelievably humbling connections to the causes that they were supporting. I have trekked all over the world with many groups over the years, and whilst I tell them all that they are the best group I have ever trekked with (my secret is out!), this group probably was. 

We bonded so closely and supported each other (through pain, exhaustion, tears and laughter) on the challenge to get everyone through it and have continued to support each other since returning to the UK.  One of the participants messaged me a couple of months later telling me that the bonds formed on that 10-day challenge were so strong that the people had helped her to get through some traumatic circumstances since getting back to the UK. It summed up what Charity Challenge is all about, not just the funds raised, or the great causes helped, but the personal journeys (excuse the pun) of discovery that we all go on when we travel out of our comfort zones.  

I loved the scenery, team, food and experience so much, I am going back again in April 2025! I highly recommend it.

Simon Albert, Founder and Director of Charity Challenge

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The Sumatran Jungle Challenge, Indonesia – without question, this was my highlight of the year. As I turned 60 in July, I decided to offer both of my children the opportunity to experience what has become my favourite of all the Charity Challenge treks, a jungle adventure in Northern Sumatra to immerse ourselves in the home of the orang-utan. There are 8 primates in the Gunung Leuser National Park and we saw 7 of them, along with hornbills, agus pheasants, termites, flying foxes, black squirrels, chipmunks, tortoise, honey bear prints, the extraordinary hives of non-stinging bees, pit vipers, lantern bugs, leeches, ants, frogs, spiders, catfish, eagles, praying mantis, strangler figs and an array of fungi. It was magical but not the walk in the park that it literally is!! 

The climbs were tough, especially as the tropical rains set in each afternoon to make our way slippery and precarious. Once on the ridges, the rare views through the tree canopy showed miles of dense jungle spread out below us, alive with sounds including the calls of the gibbons, the constant ring of the cicadas and the cries of distant birds. 

Sleeping on the forest floor side by side soon bonds a team exposed to such a raw, new and hostile environment but to the local team, this is simply their backyard where they grew up and feel at home. Their reassurance and knowledge put us all at ease, but it remains the most extreme and unfamiliar of all the treks and to experience it alongside James and Philippa was truly the most special and unique privilege. Needless to say, they both made me very proud!

Penny Knight, Challenge Leader

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This year has been another amazing year with Charity Challenge. I’ve lead numerous National Three Peaks Challenges, 24 Peaks Challenge and 5 Peaks Challenges in the Lake District, Snowdonia For Science in aid of Prostate Cancer Research, Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, and many more – most being Event Manager and Senior Leader. My usual number one go-to is CoppaFeel!, which is a 100k challenge over 5 days this time in the Brecon Beacons – WOW what an event. My other highlight has to be my trip to Morocco for the Mount Toubkal Trek, which has been on my hit list for a while, but to do it leading an incredible group from Lloyds Banking Group was unbelievable. The whole event was incredible with a fantastic ground team. All in all, another great year!🥰 

Duncan Turnbull, Challenge Leader

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2024 has been another great year of adventures for me – both at home and overseas. I really do feel lucky!  

Tackling Mount Toubkal in Morocco once again, along with multiple daytime and nighttime wanderings up and down Yr Wyddfa (aka Snowdon), Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike is always enjoyable. Additionally, there have been numerous ‘wee strolls’ around the Peak District, the South Downs and Bannau Brycheiniog (aka The Brecon Beacons) to savour – and even a few walks alongside the River Thames and around The Chilterns.  It’s certainly been a good year again. 

I have been asked however to pick just one highlight, which is actually remarkably easy this year – having just returned from this year’s ‘Coppatrek with Gi’ in the Indian Himalayas, which has so far seen the 100+ participants who took part raise in excess of £700k for the CoppaFeel!. The determination, support and good humour displayed throughout is always truly inspirational and each year the teams display just the best of humanity in so many ways. It’s a privilege to walk with them – and this year was no different.  

Here’s to 2025 and hopefully to even more adventures – did I already say how lucky I feel?

Ian Morton, Challenge Leader

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I can’t believe that my first full season with Charity Challenge was such a roller coaster of excitement. My husband (another Challenge Leader) and I seemed to spend every weekend traveling great distances across the UK to spend quality time with anywhere from 7 to 350 of our closest new friends. From the South Downs Way, back and forth across London, to Brecon Beacons, up to Snowdonia, and then even to Ben Nevis. Every event was unique and with it’s own personality. The laughter, determination, and tears were worth every step of the journey, every pound raised, and every Haribo gobbled up.  

My highlights included three CoppaFeel! events, one of which included watching a lovely group of women (and Mark) bonding and making friends for life. ‘Magic’ is the only word to describe it! My ‘Team Harry’ leader team was the loveliest group of humans to work with, and I couldn’t have asked for more. 

All of the charities involved, including Macmillian Cancer Support, Shelter, Future Dreams, XLP, Royal Marsden, and Ronald Mcdonald House Charities UK, were fantastic. The dedication was remarkable, the scenery was incredible, and every step taken meant someone else’s life could be improved, no matter how small or big, it made a difference in some way.  

I could not have thought of a better way to spend my year than with the Charity Challenge crew, and I look forward to another smashing year. Thank you to everyone I met along the way! 

Amy Swinney, Challenge Leader

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After a 5 year wait to finally return to Beijing it may not be much of a surprise to some that my highlight of the year was the Great Wall Discovery Challenge. It was really nice to see old faces and new, and whilst the Great Wall was also pretty much as I had last seen it in 2019 we did venture onto a new section (for us) this time around which didn’t take long to become one of my favourite routes to date, with it’s crumbling walls, cliff edge watch-towers and stunning views over the Baihe (White River) Gorge.

Together with the location, the local guides & support team it was the group as a whole who really made the trip for me. Everyone was equally psyched for an exciting adventure, and whilst one or two in the group would have happily settled for a few less vertiginous views looking across the snaking trail of the Wall, or easier routes down the steep cliff-edge paths they were always well supported by the group as a whole and ‘carried’ along by their overall enthusiasm and positivity.

On our 5th day of trekking along our 5th different section of the Great Wall we finally reached the ‘Hero Channel’ on the Mutianyu section – a suitably large rock inscribed with Chinese characters which enables you to take todays ‘Insta’ pic and prove to your friends and family that you have met Chairman Mao’s challenge: “to become a hero you must climb the Great Wall”.

Armed with this proof, and feeling suitably elated with their achievements, both for themselves as well as for the charities for whom they were fundraising, the group then headed back to the city. As befits a great ending to a great journey, they spent the final couple of days celebrating their ‘hero status’ and their equally notable fundraising accomplishments whilst taking in the slightly less challenging, but no-less awe inspiring mix of the ancient and more modern city culture which Beijing never fails to offer.

Danny Barden, Challenge Leader

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It’s been a brilliant season with Charity Challenge, so good in fact that it’s hard to pin down the best bits! The three CoppaFeel! events stand out the most, working with such an incredible charity and walking with some truly inspirational people in the Yorkshire Dales, Peak District and Brecon Beacons was a real privilege. It was also a great opportunity to work alongside an amazing team of leaders on all these events.  

Other highlights include, slogging up Snowdon (Yr – Wyddfa) at night in some pretty grim weather, seeing all the sights in London (something I should have done years ago) on the London Royal Parks Challenge and a few beautiful days walking along the Seven Sisters in the South Downs Challenge.   

Overall a cracking season, and I’m looking forward to the next!

Elliot Swinney, Challenge Leader

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Inspired to make your own memories in 2025? Visit Charity Challenge to choose your next challenge!