Nurses take on Snowdonia

Three nurses from University Hospital Southampton took on the highest mountain in Wales.

Grace Colesworthy, Kirsty Boyce, and Claire Wilton work on the G6 ward at University Hospital Southampton all completed the hike. Ward Manager, Grace, explains:

“Since the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020, the ward turned into a dedicated Covid ward to treat patients who came into hospital with Covid-19. Before this time, we looked after Medicine for Older People patients.

When the pandemic hit, the hospital and our staff had to react quickly.

While England has now come out of lockdown, on the ward we continue to wear full personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect ourselves and our other patients.

The masks, the gowns, the gloves. All of these are still used on our ward so wearing PPE has become routine for us.

Kirsty, Claire and I wanted to fundraise with Southampton Hospitals Charity so we could give our staff a morale boost, and really focus on their wellbeing, which has been stretched to the limits at points over the last two years.

We came up with the idea that this September we would hike both up and down Mount Snowdon, the summit of which is 1,085 metres!

We wanted to do a challenge that would get us outside and could benefit both our G6 ward and the whole Medicine for Older People Department.

While we are on our feet all day at work and I do a lot of walking with my dog, this challenge was unlike anything I have done before!”