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Mountains are our passion, and so is delivering unforgettable experiences. For 9 years now we've been merging the two and have been using Lakeland Mountain Guides as a platform to raise funds for various charities. It all started back in 2015 when we did our first ever 'Striding Edge by Torchlight' event. This fundraiser sees participants tackle Striding Edge at night in aid of the Lake District Search & Mountain Rescue Association. Even though we were joined by only 7 people it was the seed that has now developed into a budding tree. On the same day as that first event (April 25th, 2015) an earthquake rocked Nepal and killed over 9,000 people. With Nepal being close to our hearts we quickly organised 'Blencathra by Moonlight' which saw us lead over 150 people up Blencathra at night and raising over £5,000. In 2016 we hosted the incredible 'Catbells Festival of Light' and then 2017 saw the ' Lakeland Festival of Light' over Braithwaite. Between these two events we have raised an additional £25,000 for charities which send funds to the people of Nepal. In the intervening years we have also held our annual 'Striding Edge by Torchlight' events and our total raised for LDSAMRA now exceeds £4,000. The 2018 Lakeland Festival of Light returned to Catbells and raised over £13,500, but this was smashed in 2019 when 2000 people joined the event, which was again on Catbells, and raised over £16,000 for the Lake District Mountain Rescue Search Dogs Association. In 2022 we saw a return of the Festival of Light after the pandemic. A first wet year for us which dented attendance and donations, but a fab year all the same! 2023 was back to record attendance with over 2,500 people, and again in 2024 even more people (about 3000) joined us and helped us raise a further £8,650. 

These events donate 100% of the profits to charity and so far we have raised in excess of £86,600 for 6 different charities and had more than 9,720 people come light up the fells . 

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