Posted: 22/09/2021
Two DN Colleges employees recently took part in a 140 feet abseil down Conisbrough Viaduct in aid of The Samaritans. Doncaster College maths lecturer and lead practitioner Alison Kennedy, and DN Colleges Learning Support Assistant Crissi Hall showed real courage as they descended the bridge for this worthy cause.
The sponsored abseil was organised by Samaritans Scunthorpe employee Pete, and both Alison and Crissi were excited to take part in the exhilarating experience and were proud to be doing it for such a worthy cause. The pair jumped at the opportunity to fundraise for The Samaritans as the charity help those who may be in crisis or struggling, which both Alison and Crissi want to support. When asked about the charity Alison commented “During these strange times regarding COVID-19 and lockdown, many more people have struggled with isolation and the negative impacts of this on their mental health. As both of us have, in the past, suffered with mental health issues, we felt that The Samaritans was the most worthwhile Charity to raise money for, especially as the money raised is actually going to our local branch in Scunthorpe.”
Both Alison and Crissi took the abseil in their stride and had lots of fun scaling the 32-meter bridge, raising £600 for charity in the process. Alison said “I wanted to support my local branch of The Samaritans as I consider it a very worthy cause, so as soon as I saw this abseil was being organised, I signed up for it. I have done abseiling before and it is great fun, so I was excited about doing it. I loved every minute of it.”
While Crissi commented “I really wanted to do this abseil because the charity we raised money for is quite close to my heart. As a trained counsellor mental health is a really important topic for me which I feel we should always keep in the spotlight. The Samaritans have also helped me in the past when I was in my teens and had my own struggles to overcome. I am also a bit of a thrill seeker at heart so the idea of doing an abseil from 140ft was quite exciting. On the run up to the day I was not nervous at all, but once we were up there, I definitely considered calling the whole thing off. It really is a long way down from up there. The guys running it were amazing. They talked me through it every step of the way and although there were nerves, I absolutely enjoyed it and I will definitely be doing more fundraising events like this in the future.”
A huge well done to both Alison and Crissi for taking on such an exciting and nerve-wracking challenging for a very worthy cause. There is still chance to sponsor the pair for their amazing abseil, just follow the links below.
Sponsor Alison: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AlisonKennedy18
Sponsor Crissi: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ChristineHall29