Former Ashurst lawyer raises £150k for charity
Legal Cheek readers may recall that last month we reported on a former Ashurst lawyer, who is blind, aiming to climb 24 mountain peaks in 24 hours for charity.
Well, we’re pleased to report that Michael Smith, alongside his sighted boss Jack Stacey, has successfully completed the epic challenge, raising nearly £150,000 in the process!
Smith, who now works in-house and is registered blind with only 10% vision, covered over 28 miles while scaling 24 mountain peaks in the Lake District, including Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain. The duo hiked for 12 hours each day, covering the first nine peaks on day one and the remaining 15 peaks on day two.
Smith, who has Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), a condition causing central vision loss, was tethered to Stacey throughout the challenge.
The funds raised will support SeeAbility, a charity that provides assistance to individuals living with sight loss or those who have a learning disability or autism.
“The experience has been pretty emotional,” Smith said. “When I lost the majority of my sight 13 years ago, I thought it’s curtains for me, the career path in front of me pretty quickly disappeared, and I had to take a couple of years, with support of charities like SeeAbility, to relearn everything, learn a whole new language on the computer, as well as relearning basic things like how to make a cup of tea. I chose this challenge as I knew it would be way out of my comfort zone, using so many faculties that I’ve developed since my sight loss.”
“When we reached the last peak, I felt a real outpouring of emotions and it wasn’t just the physical aspect of it, it’s the fact that but for Jack, I wouldn’t have been able to set foot on the first mountain, let alone the 24th, so it means a huge amount to me,” Smith added.
