A farmer's daughter has set herself a challenge to help farmers during the current Covid-19 crisis by climbing Mount Everest in her own home.
Lisa Richardson had originally planned to run the Liverpool marathon for the RABI charity, but since the event was cancelled, she decided to try something completely different.
“I’ve seen just how difficult it is to continue day to day when the world around you is falling apart," she said of the coronavirus's impact on British farming.
"It was this realisation that drove me to do something to help those farmers who would need it the most.
“I thought I’d take the challenge on of climbing the height of Everest with 10kg weight in a rucksack to raise money.”
Everest stands 8,850m above sea level and Lisa calculated she would have to climb the stairs in her home 4,424 times to cover the altitude. She plans to complete the challenge in five days.
Lisa regularly helps out on her Lancashire parents’ farm, where they rear sheep, cattle and hens.
She also manages a community centre in Lancaster and works as a sports massage therapist, where she treats many farmers for injuries and aches and pains they pick up during day to day life.
"Particularly over the winter I listened to many of them speaking about how much hard work farming has been because of the storms and floods we had and how this would impact on their livelihoods," Lisa said.
"Most of them were more worried about how it would affect their animals and whether they could produce enough food for the country.
“No sooner had they “weathered” the storms, they had the obstacles that Covid-19 thrown at them."
Lisa is raising money for the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI), who 'work tirelessly' to support farmers and the wider rural community.
It is a grant-making charity which helps farming people of all ages if they are in financial difficulty.
