Record-breaking fundraiser takes climbing the Wrekin to a new extreme

Dave Stevens is a man fond of a challenge. He is what would be described as an ‘ultra endurance athlete’, something borne out by his astonishing distance efforts.

Inspired to raise money for the hospital that treated his son, Dave has spent the past few years taking on the kind of challenges that make a marathon sound like a Sunday morning warm-up, including a 160-mile run along the Pennine Way in just 36 hours.

This year the former member of the Parachute Regiment set his sights on a more local challenge.

The 38-year-old, who lives in Telford, was aware of efforts by fellow athletes to climb the Wrekin 24 times in 24 hours.

It is no small task, requiring those confident – or crazy – enough, to cover 67.35 miles, with just shy of 20,000ft of elevation.

Astonishingly Dave didn't even need the full 24-hours to complete the task – finishing in a time of 21 hours and 13 minutes.

Although he's a man who enjoys the challenge, the reason behind his efforts is fundraising for Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Thanks to the work of staff at the hospital his son, Oliver, who was born nine weeks premature, survived, with the four-year-old now thriving and even learning Brazilian Jujitsu.

Dave said: "The staff there are just amazing.The level of care Oliver received there, I just can't fault it.

"We are just incredibly fortunate and I always want to do what I can to say thank you to them for that."

His Wrekin challenge took months of preparation and a team of friends and supporters helping to pace-make, and carry the items needed so not to slow him down.

Earlier this year, in July, he 'warmed up' by completing the Telford T50 route clockwise in a time of eight hours and 25 minutes – the fastest time to complete the 50-mile route.

From that point, all planning went into the Wrekin project – no easy feat working the challenge around lockdown and the huge numbers of people visiting the beauty spot in search of some outdoor relief from Covid.

He said: "After the T50 I set my eyes on the Wrekin 24 summits in 24 hours. At that point the most anyone had been up there in 24 hours was 22 times.

"I had done the T50 in July and I kind of held that form all the way through and waited and waited for the correct time, when I knew the weather would not be exceptionally hot, the days would be not too short or too long, and I had enough people around me to pace it.

"Working it around the Covid rules was another thing. The social distancing from people and being able to get enough people to help, because the Wrekin is incredibly busy.

"In the weeks before I did it, it would have been like going up and down Oxford Street because it was so busy."

On the day of the challenge – a Saturday last month – everything went perfectly.

Dave said: "I felt good. I was ready for it, I think if I had tried to hold off for a couple of weeks I would have lost a bit of performance.

"On the day I felt incredible good. Started at 8am and I set myself a schedule – I think what has gone wrong when other people have tried it is that they have just hit it too hard from the off."

Dave said that he expected other people to now attempt to beat his efforts.

He said: "I know there are other people who have said they will have a crack at it."

Dave said he was hugely indebted to his friends who had helped him, including his partner Lena.

He said: "They were amazing, just keeping me company, keeping me motivated and the idea was that I would not really carry anything so if I needed something they would be able to pass it to me."

He added: "I just want to say thank you to all of them, especially Lena, she did the whole 21 hours there with me and she went up and down six times as well."

Anyone who wishes to donate to Dave's fundraising efforts can visit his Just Giving website.