A LOCAL hiker who set herself the task of summiting the Skirrid every day for a month completed her challenge last week having raised more than £2000 for charity.

Vivienne Tuck, who lives in Bryn y Gwenin, decided back in February to undertake the challenge of walking the Skirrid everyday in March, in order to keep active and raise money for charity to honour her mother-in-law, who passed away in February.

She originally thought that she would raise around £500 from sponsors for the challenge, but so far she has raised over £2000 for Parkinson’s UK and is now looking to push on and raise as much as possible.

Vivienne moved to Bryn y Gwenin just five months before the first lockdown back in March last year.

She had previously commuted to London each week for work before travel and workplace restrictions meant that she had to work from home.

As the months dragged on, she found that she was only leaving the house on weekends and endeavoured to get out and about more often for exercise to improve her mental wellbeing.

She said: ‘I found I was sitting in the same position all day, drinking cups of tea, not really getting out of the house much at all except on weekends.

‘I love hill walking so I thought, this is the only opportunity I’m going to get to walk in the mountains every day for a month, so I decided to go for it.’

Vivienne shared the details of her challenge in a post on Facebook that gained a lot of interaction from her friends and family, which gave her the idea to raise money for charity.

‘I’m very active on Facebook anyway so when I posted about the challenge, I thought to myself that if everybody who has liked and commented on the post donated some money, I could raise a lot for charity by doing it,’ she said.

Then, just before she was due to start the challenge, she received the sad news that her mother-in-law Kathryn Tuck, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, had passed away.

So Vivienne decided that she would compete the challenge to raise money for Parkinson’s UK in Kathryn’s honour.

Vivienne said that Kathryn’s family were ‘over the moon’ when she told them that she would be dedicating her challenge to Kathryn.

On her JustGiving page for the challenge she wrote: ‘As lockdown drags on and the fatigue kicks in it is hard to keep motivated.

‘Not wanting another month to pass where I flitted from one exercise to another without a specific a goal, I set myself a challenge to summit Skirrid every day in March.’

‘My mother-in-law, Kathryn Tuck lived with Parkinson’s for more than 20 years, until she sadly passed on 24th February 2021 at home with her devoted husband, Brian, by her side.

‘I dedicate this challenge to Kath, I know she would be extremely supportive of this challenge; she would often tell me how she loved to watch my adventures through Facebook, so Kath, this one is for you’.

Vivienne has been keeping her social media followers updated each week by posting pictures from her walks on Facebook, as well as daily updates through the exercise app Strava which is linked to her JustGiving page.

She has been joined on some of her walks by her neighbour’s dog, as well as friends who asked if they could join her once the stay at home restrictions were lifted on March 13, after following her updates on social media.

To donate to Vivienne’s cause, go to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/vivienne-tuck1.