A fundraising foursome is preparing to climb Ben Nevis later this month to help generate cash to bring some life to a paediatric area in Walsall’s new Urgent and Emergency Care Centre (UECC).

NHS colleagues Liz Slevin, Corrine O’Callaghan and Sarah Clarke will take on the highest mountain in the British Isles with friend Darren Price on Saturday 22 April.

Liz, who is ED and Acute Care Transformational Lead Nurse at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, said the group enjoyed mountain climbing in their spare time to push their physical and mental boundaries and had wanted to attempt Ben Nevis – which is 1,344.527m above sea level in the Lochaber area of Scotland – for a while.

“When we have climbed mountains previously we have all spurred each other on, we have got a good dynamic going, and that’s what we’ll be relying on this time round,” she said.

“Corrine is Emergency Department Matron at Walsall Manor Hospital and Sarah is a former Dudley colleague who worked in emergency care and is now in Stroke Services in Sandwell. Darren is our friend who is an M&S team manager and I have to be honest and say he is the one we all rely on for directions because his map reading and orienteering skills are way better than ours! We make a good team though and are confident we can reach the summit.”

Liz said they wanted to raise money for the Paediatric Emergency Department area in the new UECC to brighten it up with some fun artwork, wall wraps and musical and interactive equipment, appreciating that stress and worry can be reduced in the environment in this way.

“We are working with our Trust charity Well Wishers which is supporting us and promoting the climb and hope people will visit our JustGiving page in the run up to next week’s event.”

She added that none of them were looking forward to the descent. “That’s the hardest part,” she said.

Georgie Westley, Fundraising Manager at Walsall Healthcare, said: “Well Wishers is proud to get behind Liz and the team and wish them all the best as they take on this challenge.

“The charity raises money for items above and beyond what the NHS can provide to enhance our patients’ experience and this is a really good example of that.”

The JustGiving page can be found here https://bit.ly/3KDE7mG