Good News Worth Sharing: A 90-Year-Old Woman Has Raised £260,000 By Climbing A Mountain’s Worth Of Stairs

A 90-year old woman from Sutherland has raised over £260,000 for the NHS by climbing her stairs as many times as it would take her to reach the peak of Mount Suilven in Scotland. Initially hoping to raise £10,000, Margaret Payne says she was inspired by Captain Tom Moore – who has now raised a total of £27 million walking the length of his garden 100 times.

Margaret's daughter Nicola set up the fundraiser page on Easter Sunday, with her mother planning to climb the stairs three to four times a day with the hope of eventually making it to 282 times – the equivalent to reaching Suilven’s peak.

‘I first climbed Suilven in 1944 aged 15 with my sister Elizabeth from Glencanisp, Lochinver, during the war,’ Margaret wrote on her fundraiser. ‘I have now lived in the Highlands for over 40 years and I would like to raise funds to support the NHS in particular at this difficult time and especially in return for the extraordinary support we have received personally at Ardvar. In addition we are giving some support to the Highland Hospice.’

Hoping to finish her challenge by the end of June, Margaret appeared on This Morning thanking the public for their support and noting Tom’s efforts as her motivation . ‘Tom was the inspiration,’ she said. ‘But it was Nicola’s [her daughter] idea that we should do something with my stair walking because on wet and windy days when I can’t go out, I go and walk up and down the stairs.’

On the video interview, she was then joined by Tom himself who told her, ‘I think it is something that is out of this world, it’s marvellous, something that you would never believe that started with you running up and down your stairs.’

Erm, are we the only ones that think we should be setting these two up on a date when all this is over?!

To donate to Margaret's fundraiser, click here.

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