A team from a top North Wales legal firm have raised a packet for a deserving charity after making the most of their Christmas fitness presents.
Legal eagles from Swayne Johnson took part in the annual Hope House Ty Gobaith 10-mile Canal Walk along the picturesque Llangollen Canal – and showing a head for heights, crossed the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, over 120 feet above the Dee Valley.
They bolstered their sponsorship with a series of bake days across their company’s six offices at Bangor, Llandudno, St Asaph, Denbigh, Ruthin and Tattenhall, near Chester.
Sara Lloyd Evans, a family law solicitor based at Llandudno, said: “The idea came about because we wanted to do something for charity and a number of us had received Fitbit activity trackers for Christmas.
“We are aiming to do a big walking challenge in North Wales later this year and obviously Snowdon is on our list but we thought we had better get some other walks under our belt first so we decided on the Llangollen Canal Walk.
“It’s for Hope House – Ty Gobaith which is a great charity and we’re also raising money for our designated charity, Headway, which is for the victims of severe head injury.
“Supporting Hope House is also important for us – many of the firm’s employees are parents themselves and supporting a children and family charity is only natural and Swayne Johnson wants to support the wonderful work that is being carried out by Hope House-Ty Gobaith right across North Wales and the borders.”
The Llangollen Canal Walk is now in its sixth year and it took the Swayne Johnson team and over two aqueducts, through two tunnels, and along Chirk Bank near the Poacher’s Pocket before returning to the Trevor Basin, a total of 10 miles.
Mared Williams, a property solicitor at the firm’s Ruthin office, said: “The weather stayed fine so it was really good and very enjoyable apart from the tunnels.
“One of them was about half a mile long and pitch black but the views from the Pontcysyllte aqueduct were fantastic even though it was a bit windy up there on the way back.”
Eluned Yaxley, Area Fund-raiser for Ty Gobaith, said: “We’re delighted the team from Swayne Johnson took part in what was a great day and are very grateful to them.
“This was a really important event for us because we depend entirely on donations for the £100,000 a week we need to maintain the range of services we provide which range from specialist nursing to counselling and support and we’ve been going for 21 years now and we want to be here for another 21 and beyond.”
For more on Hope House/Ty Gobaith go to http://www.hopehouse.org.uk/home.html and for information of Swayne Johnson to http://www.swaynejohnson.com/
