Friends take on gruelling 24-hour Shropshire 80K challenge for Hope House

Carol Mills, Sally Page and Francesca Robinson are all part of the Bayston Hill Salad Dodgers running group and will be joining hundreds of runners and walkers in the Shropshire Hills.

The three have decided to raise money for Hope House due to Carol’s personal connection to the charity.

“Hope House is an incredible place and provides such important care for children and families, there is nowhere else quite like it,” said Carol, who lives in Bayston Hill. 

“I have seen how much the charity does in our local area and when we were discussing taking on this challenge, I knew I wanted to raise money for such an important local charity, and the other girls all agreed.”

The trio will start out early in the morning on Saturday 6th April from Craven Arms and will attempt to complete the 80K, or 50 miles, in just 24 hours.

“It’s a really tough challenge,” said Sally. “It’s not just physically tough, but it’s mentally tough too to keep going for that amount of time.

“But we’ve been preparing over recent weeks and are now really excited to get started.”

Francesca said: “There’s a lot of hills to climb and I think in total it’s about a 8,000ft climb. It’s really going to be a test for all of us, but it’s all for an amazing charity.”

The group have a target of £1,000 and have set up a JustGiving Page.

“We’d really like to raise as much money as possible for Hope House, so if you are able to donate to our page we would be so very grateful,” added Carol.

Hope House fundraiser Bekki Fardoe said: “We’d like to say good luck to this brilliant group of ladies who are going to be really pushing themselves on the Shropshire 80K to raise money.

“Without amazing support from people like Carol, Francesca and Sally, we would not be here for the children and families that need us. Thank you all so much.”