Pam Brown (pictured, centre), owner of Pam Brown Mortgages, is undergoing the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge with around 30 broker and lender staff from across the industry.
The Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge is a 24.4 mile trip and includes 1,585 metres of ascent. It takes on the peaks of Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough.
The group has already raised £6,727, ahead of its £2,500 target, but is trying now to hit £7,000, with donations going towards Crohn’s and Colitis UK. To donate please click here.
Crohn’s is a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed, and Colitis is a long-term condition where the large intestine and rectum are inflamed.
Brown’s son Joe was diagnosed with Crohn’s when he was 13, when he started having uncomfortable stomach pains and body aches, which led him to drop a stone in weight.
Brown said he then went on to have a course of medication which weakened his immune system, led him to contract sepsis, pneumonia and tuberculosis as well as hair loss. Brown said that he then contracted alopecia and then was diagnosed with liver disease known as PSC.
Brown continued: “Joe’s life is understandably harder with the disease leaving sometimes unable to eat and must be in close proximity to facilities, he has two-monthly hospital appointments for injections and tests not knowing if or when he will get ill or need surgery, along with annual MRI and fibro scans, but at 22 years of age he is an up and coming mortgage broker and currently studying to qualify as a wealth adviser, and I could not be prouder of who is and how he refuses to give up.
“Crohn’s effects an estimated 500,000 people in the UK and leaves them at 10 times more risk to getting cancer, as a mum I want to do everything in my power to support Joe and am so grateful for the collaboration of industry colleagues and friends to help me raise awareness and raise funds to support everyone effected by this terrible disease.”
This is the second fundraising trip that Brown has organised, with a group taking on Ben Nevis last year and raising around £30,000 in the past year.
David Coleman, head of sales at Positive Lending and also taking part in the challenge, said: “Anyone who knows Pam knows she is a larger than life personality and big presence in the mortgage world, the amount of industry names coming together to support this challenge is testament to this.
“For me this is a challenge way out of my comfort zone but one I am fully committed too and whatever aches and pains this challenge may present will be incomparable to what Joe and other sufferers endure daily.”
