The Trust celebrates its 10th Anniversary
Later this year we will be celebrating ten years since setting up The Neil Mackenzie Trust. In that time we have raised over £50,000 and helped 33 people with outdoor skills training courses and 46 groups and individuals with expeditions all over the world. It is fitting that many of the expeditions that we have supported have been in the mountains – where Neil was happiest. The most recent mountain expedition was to Nepal.
In October Nathan White, Jack Morris, Connor Holdsworth and Dave Sharpe headed into to the Rolwaling valley. After acclimatising on Parchamo at 6187m the team had to repair their equipment and ration their food due to being ravaged by Ravens. The team chose to split up to attempt two different objectives. Dave Sharpe and Connor Holdsworth made the first ascent of Takargo East with the aim of linking Takargo East with the main Summit of Takargo 6771m by the very complex East ridge………………………………… For full report see https://theneilmackenzietrust.com/nepal-expedition-2024/
2024 Walk around the World
Angus and Margaret completed their personal challenge of walking 2024 miles in 2024 in the middle of December. The group of amazing supporters has walked, run, swum, cycled, skied, etc. an amazing 48,940 miles round the northern hemisphere, down to Cape Town, round the southern hemisphere (all virtually, of course!) and back to Scotland! An incredible achievement. Thank you to everyone who provided us with miles (or kms!) and who donated so generously and of course Angus for collating all the figures! Congratulations to our top participants: David Hewitson (3,667 miles), Mariano Rossi (3,184 miles) and Doug Meiklejohn (3,142 miles) and everyone else who added miles to our challenge! The winner of a Tiso voucher for guessing the nearest to the final total was John Steven.
It is not too late to donate: https://www.gofundme.com/f/join-us-in-our-walk-around-the-world?qid=0b0688a43d1c95c2ae032fa7960ce7c5 Although the figure in GoFundme is low, we have, in fact, reached our target with direct donations, but please don’t that let prevent you expressing your support by adding more!
Grant news
For 2025 we have set new deadlines for Expedition Grants. We will now consider Expedition grants in the spring, for Summer Expeditions, and in the late summer/autumn, for Winter Expeditions. Small Expedition grants of £200 or less will be considered alongside skills training grants at our monthly trustees meetings. Next application deadlines: Neil Mackenzie Adventure Grant 31st January (VOC only)
Educational Expedition Grant: 15th March
Expedition Grant: 15th March
Recent and forthcoming Expedition Grants:
Caroline Sharp completed her expedition to the Pyrenees. “The intention for this project was to use an expedition across the Pyrenean Mountain range to collect experiential data for a series of written, and visual art outcomes. The expedition was also a journey in its own right, I love these mountains, and I’d never done such a large undertaking before.” Her report can be seen here: https://theneilmackenzietrust.com/pyrenean-braided-traverse/
Kirsty Noble will, by now, have completed a research trip to Antarctica and Anna Fleming is off to spend a month with 3 Sisters Trekking Company, the first ever female-led adventure trekking company in Nepal, in February. We look forward to receiving their reports on their return.
2025 skills training courses: Mara Mihali has received assistance for a winter lead climbing course. Helen Lear Grant will go on an Adaptive Cycle Course and Karen Darke on a Stand Up Paddle Boarding course. Both these skills training will be in June 2025 at Glenmore Lodge.
We are particularly keen to assist teenagers and adults who are disadvantaged (for example by financial, environmental, or learning difficulties or ill health), or support people who will use their training to help or train others, for example members of mountain rescue teams or volunteers in clubs and organisations. If you or someone you know would like to apply for a skills training grant, contact us by email or “contact us” on website (see sidebar on first page for addresses) and we will send you/them an application form.
2025 events
Fort William Mountain Festival: 14-16th February. Once again we will be in Fort William and look forward to meeting many friends, there. If you are there, please make sure you come to speak to us!
23rd August: Supporters’ Open Day, Farr Hall, IV2 6AX Once again we will be holding our Supporters’ Day in the Highlands. Following the success of last year’s event we look forward to more outdoor activities (climbing was a great success!), the chance to meet and hear from grant recipients and the opportunity for all ages to participate in an entertaining day. More details in the next newsletter, but if you are a recipient and would be able to help with activities or give a short, informal presentation, please drop us an email.
29th November: St Andrew’s Eve ceilidh, Farr Hall to celebrate 10 years of the Trust. We will be looking for helpers – so let us know if you are coming and what you can do to help.
Fundraising: We will be running a Prize Draw later this year, to be drawn at the ceilidh. If you can offer a major prize, which will be printed on the tickets, please let us know. You will, of course. get good publicity as a result. If you would like to do some fundraising of your own, for us, let us know and we will help to publicise your event.
Thanks to Anna Fleming who collected £320 in donations for us following a talk in Edinburgh about her previous expedition, which was with the Cholita Climbers in Bolivia. https://thegranitesea.wordpress.com/2024/06/20/bolivia-meeting-the-cholita-climbers/https://thegranitesea.wordpress.com/2024/07/11/meeting-the-cholitas-part-2-climbing-andean-mountains-together/
The Neil Mackenzie Trust 