Hi everyone.
I hope you don't mind me posting this, but I really want to share this with as many people as I can. If any of you can pass this on among your own wider networks that would be brilliant, which I hope you will agree after reading this.
My 20 year old son, Fraser is extremely lucky to have left school with a very close-knit group of friends who keep regularly in touch and provide all manner of help and support to each other as they come to terms with the demands and responsibilities of being young adults. Earlier this year and very sadly, one of this group took his own life. This has had a devastating effect on all of these young people who have now had to learn how to come to terms with something no one should ever have to. Each one of them quite remarkably stood up and spoke out with such positive and happy memories of this young man, Joe, at his funeral. Now, Fraser is joining with one of this group, Henry, and his family to take the Three Peaks Challenge in Joe’s memory and to raise money for PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide , which is the UK charity dedicated to the prevention of suicide and the promotion of positive mental health and emotional wellbeing in young people.
I didn't know this, but quite frighteningly suicide is the biggest killer of young people under the age of 35 in the UK. In 2018 alone over 1800 young people took their own lives. I shudder to think what that number will have risen to over the Covid lockdowns. Having already passed this message around my own work network, I have been amazed to see just how many people I know have close experience of this. PAPYRUS is a charity which provides confidential support and advice to young people struggling with thoughts of suicide, and anyone worried about a young person through their HOPELINEUK helpline.
The national Three Peaks Challenge involves climbing the highest peak in each of Scotland (Ben Nevis), England (Scafell Pike) and Wales (Snowden) over a 24 hour period. This is a total walking distance of 23 miles, having a total ascent of 3,064 metres (10,052 ft) and will involve driving a total distance of 462 miles between the locations. The plan is for them to complete this on Saturday 25th June, overnight into Sunday 26th June.
Please can I ask you to visit the Just Giving Page for this event and to read the short and individual stories that Fraser, Henry, Harriot and Douglas have written for why they are doing this. After reading these, if would like to carry on and make a donation, we would all be extremely grateful. Even the smallest contribution can make a real difference and could actually save someone’s life.
Thank you for reading this through and as I mentioned above, if you can share this message with as many people as you can that would be be really kind,
Done. Wish your son good luck from the Lancashire Diasboro.
https://diasboro.club/forum/profile/martin-bellamy/
Thanks Martin. That was kind of you.
Done, Powmill.
A mate of mine from Uni unexpectedly took his own life a couple of Christmases ago so I have some idea of what your son and his friends are going through. It was such a shock, saddening, maddening and heartbreaking.
Like what appears to have happened with your son, the one positive is that tragedies like this can brings groups together to support one another and I've certainly reconnected with one or two people in the aftermath.
All the best to you and your son and very good luck to him with the three peaks - what an effort it will be to complete.
Done also.
Ken Smith
Thanks both Andy and Ken. You are both very kind.
Donated
If you could condense your post to 280 characters I will put it on Twitter for you and Facebook and LinkedIn. These posts would go to several thousand people and hopefully you would get a positive response.
It is such a shocking thing to have happened and I hope that by doing this event it will help to ease everyone’s loss.
OFB
Donated
If you could condense your post to 280 characters I will put it on Twitter for you and Facebook and LinkedIn. These posts would go to several thousand people and hopefully you would get a positive response.
It is such a shocking thing to have happened and I hope that by doing this event it will help to ease everyone’s loss.
OFB
Thank you for that Bob. (And thank you to the silent Diasboro members that don't post in here, but I do know have visited the Just Giving site).
My son is quite overwhelmed by the generosity and empathy of otherwise complete strangers.
I have condensed my essay into 280 characters. If that looks OK to you, that is really kind of you to post it on. My only concern is that although the visible text might only be 280 characters, but will the embedded links be honoured as this gets copied into those other forums?
A son of one of the Diasboro is doing the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for PAPYRUS (a UK charity for prevention of suicide in the young) in memory of his late friend who took his own life. Pls visit Just Giving Page & read the story. Any donation could help save a life.
I don’t know about the embedded link but I’ll try !
OFB
Hi Bob. No. It looks like the link isn't copied in Twitter. I will see if I can craft something that is Twitter friendly...
I don’t know about the embedded link but I’ll try !
OFB
Hi Bob. I have experimented and this will work on Twitter I think:
The son of one of the Diasboro is doing the Three Peaks Challenge in memory of a friend recently lost to suicide & to raise funds for PAPYRUS (a charity for prevention of suicide in the young). Pls read their story at https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.justgiving.com%2Ffundraising%2FForJoeDillon&data=04%7C01%7CChris.Glynn%40ecs.co.uk%7C4203ae4e78e8463169f208da06c92e34%7C58dea911047d43fb934219ca17665d67%7C0%7C0%7C637829758390899576%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=TN23Wivgwklc0xNVGKEc9GpfPBtRrm0nEHVNFs8NV4g%3D&reserved=0
Done on twitter thanks
Done on twitter thanks
Our thanks to you ...
I’ve added your link on Twitter too, P-N. Good luck with the fund raising.
Happy to help with the fundraising. Best of luck to everyone doing the Peaks.
UTB
It is already three months, but seems only yesterday, that I posted about Powmill Junior planning to do the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for PAPYRUS (Prevention of Young Suicide) in memory of his friend who took his life earlier this year. Many of you were very generous and made donations on the Just Giving site for this venture. Thank you all again. My son did notice the donations and messages you left and said to me, that’s your Diasboro football friends isn’t it? He was impressed at the kindness of so many total strangers. Like I said to him, not just any total strangers, but total Middlesbrough strangers!
Now the time is drawing near, I thought I should post a brief update for you as the challenge is due to take place this coming weekend.
The team completed its last “training” climb a couple of days ago, bagging a final Munroe in the dark. They are now as ready as they are going to be to start the challenge, going up Ben Nevis at 6am next Saturday. Mrs Powmill and myself will not see them go up Ben Nevis, but will see them up Scafell Pike later that afternoon and we will also see them down off Snowdon early on Sunday. Fingers crossed that the weather will be kind for them.
Thanks to you and to the many others that have made donations they have raised well over £4,000, so much more than they had hoped for and there is still time for that total to grow. All of that is going to translate into many young peoples’ lives being saved. So, thank you all again.
I will post another update next week, to let you know how they will have got on and if they do manage to complete the challenge inside that 24 hour target.
Best of luck Powmill, hope all goes well for them and the funds keep coming in. Have made a modest donation on behalf of Mrs P and myself. 😎
Best of luck Powmill, hope all goes well for them and the funds keep coming in. Have made a modest donation on behalf of Mrs P and myself. 😎
Thank you KP adnd, if I may say, your modesty becomes you 🤫
I promised I would let you know and I am really pleased to report that Powmill Junior and his chums completed their Three Peaks Challenge with 12 minutes to spare on Sunday morning. It was touch and go after they had been subjected to a diversion at Tyndrum that cost them an hour on the road, and then 50 mph restrictions over extended lengths on the motorways. But they did it. Pictures show them at the start at the foot of Ben Nevis on Saturday morning; on the summits of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon, then finally striding down the last path off Snowdon on Sunday morning. Mrs Powmill and I are immensely proud of all of them.
They have over £5600 donated on their Just Giving page for PAPYRUS to help prevent young people taking their lives. So a huge thankyou to everyone that has helped them reach that amazing total.
Thanks for everyone’s concern about my hospitalisation for the last five nights as I was discharged, or should I say released from James Cook Hospital this morning some three hours ago. First the good news. The cancer I’ve endured the past 12 years has not spread and although my PSA (prostate specific antigen) although fairly erratic has stabilised, but even better although worried about my bowel incontinence, there is no sign of bowel cancer it’s just a question of trying to control my pelvic floor with physiotheraphy exercises for the rest of my life. Suffice to say that I’m very sore after a further bout of endoscopy treatment. Nevertheless although now housebound for the rest of my life, it’s good to be back home, and I have wonderful support from my Age UK carer who visits me for a 2 hour chat every week and also she and her husband do all my shopping for me as I’m too weak nowadays as I can hardly walk nowadays. I’ve always looked upon my situation as an inconvenience rather than an illness and realise that there are many people who are in a worse position than I.
Now what have I missed on the Sporting front these last few days? Well not a lot in respect of the Boro, but the whole of the Headingley Test Match, a couple of wins by Yorkshire in the T20 competition, and a surprising Cas win over Catalans during extra time.
However I must apologise for getting my historical survey of Local Government in Middlesbrough completely wrong. Obviously apart from the history of the Boro, my history knowledge is not as good as my geography. I’ve never worked for Middlesbrough County Borough Council and completely missed out 6 years of my life. I left Redcar Corporation in 1967 to work for Eston UDC and thereafter was Deputy Clerk of the Counci at Saltburn and Marske UDC during the years leading up to the formation of Cleveland County Council in 1974 until 1996, and thereafter at Langbaurgh Council. No excuses but my memory played tricks as I had assumed wrongly that the Boundary Commission had created the County of Cleveland in 1968 when in fact it was in 1974.
I’ve always prided myself on the history of Middlesbrough FC, but until this last season have always had my little Nationwide pocket annual (formerly the News of the World Annual) to fall back on since 1956 and of course diaries for much of that time. The previous years going back to 1876 from several sources of the history of Middlesbrough FC publications. I also had a photograph memory of all football results up to 3 or 4 days until the next set of fixtures took place, not only of the Boro’s results but all 92 league clubs and 42 Scottish league clubs. Unfortunately my photograph memory didn’t extend to my Accountancy studies. My long term memory of sporting memories is still fairly good, but not so of recent events. In fact I even forgot my birthday this year, and even to my chagrin the anniversary of my wife’s death.
A lot has been written on Diasboro about Langbaurgh lately and both Jarkko and Martin Bellamy have come to the nearest conclusions. I have a copper plated map of the North Riding of Yorkshire hanging in my lounge which shows a Viking settlement not at Redcar but a hamlet near Great Ayton. As Martin states Langbaurgh translates as Long Barrow, a barrow in this context meaning a range of hills, so I would imagine that means from Captain Cook’s Monument via Roseberry Topping to Cringle Moor but perhaps not as far as Eston Nab. Though why Redcar should adopt it as an original name to replace Redcar I cannot imagine.
Glad to see you back ,Ken and very pleased to hear nothing has spread from your prostate.
I would highly recommend the link that Martin B posted to an old history of Yorkshire, that teaches us that Langbaugh was actually one of the old wapontakes of Yorkshire which actually included the more modern Middlesbrough and at one point also areas more associated with Whitby.
You are right to point out that Langbaurgh itself is centred a little north of Gt Ayton. Langbaurgh itself being the "Long Hill" that was more or less the centre of the wapontake.
Anyways, despite our unfamiliarity with it it seems Langbaurgh was actually a more traditional name for the region than any of us knew!
I am glad this Langbaurgh thing got solved. Ever since 1980's I have wondered that there was a mythical town called Langbaurgh, that I had missed during my first few visit to the area.
Was it ever called borough of Langbaurgh, though? Or do I remember incorrectly after all these years.
Happy to have the conundrum solved. Thank you all, mates. Up the Boro!
I’ve got a theory that the “long hill” refers to the Cleveland Dyke near Great Ayton.
More info here: http://earthwise.bgs.ac.uk/index.php/Jurassic,_Tertiary_and_Quaternary_around_Great_Ayton_and_Roseberry_Topping,_Cleveland_Hills_-_an_excursion
Btw, Langbaurgh is pronounced Lang-barf.
Here’s a map showing Langbaurgh Ridge, which may be the eponymous Long Hill.
Apologies P-N, didn’t mean to crash your Blog post. Well done to the team who completed the challenge, that’s a fantastic achievement for a worthy cause.
During my hiking days I always found descending Roseberry Topping a greater challenge than the ascent. I once wanted my ashes to be thrown from the summit, but of course didn’t anticipate that my wife would die before me so now wish for them to be mixed in a vault with hers.
Although the smallest of the peaks I always found Eston Nab the most difficult, however Cringle Moor was my favourite as it has a map at the summit depicting all of Teesside and with a strong pair of binoculars one can see planes landing at Teesside Airport.
I last walked up the Teesside Matterhorn on my 60th Birthday weekend. It means so much to me from mine and my kids’ childhoods. During a recent stay in the area we walked to the Captain Cook Monument from Gribdale - a day of mixed emotions, remembering those we’ve lost and celebrating how lucky we are to still be here.
On the subject of ashes, my Dad ended his days in Guisborough, within sight of Highcliffe Nab but unable to ever get there. My brother and I decided to scatter his ashes up there, so that he’d finally been. He had the last laugh though, because as we scattered them over the edge, a huge gust of wind blew them back all over us. We looked at each other and fell about with laughter. It’s very much what he would have wanted.
Ah Gribdale! I was trying to remember the name of the little village below Captain Cook’s Monument. I thought it began with a G but that’s as much as I could remember. Thanks for that information.