Watson Burton climbs Everest Base Camp for St Oswald’s Hospice

Two trainee solicitors at commercial law firm Watson Burton are embarking on the journey of a lifetime to raise funds for St Oswald’s Hospice in Newcastle.

Leah Pattison and Megan Irons will be ascending to the Base Camp of Mount Everest – 5,380m above sea level – in support of the hospice, which provides specialist hospice care to North East adults, young people, babies and children with life-limiting conditions.

Entirely self-funded, the Everest Base Camp challenge will see the trainees set off from Lukla, Nepal on May 5, as part of a group of eight, and they will walk a total of approximately 80 miles.

Megan and Leah will be walking up to 13 miles every day and staying in tea houses along the way before reaching the final stop of the trek at Everest Base Camp on May 20. They will be supported and guided by trekking experts, EverTrek, who specialise in high altitude trekking to iconic destinations such as Annapurna Base Camp and Island Peak in the Himalayas.

The two trainee solicitors, who work at Watson Burton’s Newcastle headquarters, set up a JustGiving fundraising page and have exceeded their target due to generous donations from family, friends and colleagues.

St Oswald’s Hospice is Watson Burton’s chosen charity for 2019 and staff at the firm have fundraised for the organisation for a number of years.

Speaking about the Everest Base Camp challenge, Leah Pattison, said:“This is a personal challenge for both of us: the trek is something we have always wanted to do.Being able to complete it while helping Watson Burton’s chosen charity makes it even more rewarding. We’re really looking forward to it, it will be an adventure which we will certainly remember!”

Megan Irons added:“We’re overwhelmed with the support we have received from friends, family and our colleagues. We have exceeded our fundraising target, and this is great news as it means that we’ll be donating more than what we were expecting to support St Oswald’s work.”

Laura Barrett, fundraising officer at St Oswald’s Hospice, said:“Climbing Mt Everest is an incredible challenge, putting yourself in such a challenging situation to raise money for charity is very admirable.

“We hold biennial overseas treks and have had a team climb Everest before, they said it was the most breath-taking experience they have ever done, so we know the two trainee solicitors are going to love it. A once in a lifetime adventure and we can’t thank them enough for choosing to raise money for St Oswald’s, the team at Watson Burton have really got stuck in with their fundraising and they have been a pleasure to work with.”