Would you hike in horizontal rain and wind for three days straight for your nan?

One Tywyn soldier did just that earlier this month, raising over £7,000 for the hospice that took care of his nan in her last days.

Carl Thompson endured 60mph wind and rain on the summit of Pen y Fan, not sleeping for three days to climb to the top of the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) mountain, not once but 27 times - one climb for each day his nan Brenda Thompson was in the care of Katharine House Hospice in Banbury this March.

Carl used his time off as a Royal Engineer in the British Army to climb the 886m in memory of the “proud Welsh girl from the Valleys”.

Though the weather was kind to him when he started at 9am on Saturday, 1 November, from 9pm on the second night it was “non-stop rain and 60mph winds on the summit”.

He described the conditions as “awful”.

Despite the Welsh weather, the 34-year-old said: “[It was a] very successful challenge on the hill - all 27 summits completed and over £7655 raised with Gift Aid.”

He said he did the endurance challenge because at the end of her battle with pancreatic cancer, Brenda received “round-the-clock care from the kindest and most compassionate staff members” at Katherine House - “no job or request was too much”.

He completed the challenge at 10.30am on Tuesday, 4 November.

A spokesperson for Katherine House Hospice in Banbury said: “We have been overwhelmed by Carl’s dedication to raise funds and awareness for Katharine House in his nan’s memory.

“We are massively reliant on the generosity of our supporters to fund the care we provide here, so it means so much that Carl has chosen to undertake such a gruelling challenge to fundraise for us!”