THE mayor of St Helens and amputee veteran Andy Reid will be among an intrepid group set to abseil down the St Helens Hospital building.

The group are taking on the 50-foot abseil in aid of the St Helens Hospital 10k Charity Appeal.

Joining 74-year-old mayor Pat Ireland is council chief executive, Mike Palin will be councillors Lynn Clarke and Nova Charlton and Linzi Prescott, the widow of Steve Prescott.

Also scaling the heights of Whiston Hospital is triple-amputee army veteran Andy Reid and the high sheriff of Knowsley, Peter Woods.

Meanwhile, Star reporter Kelsey Maxwell will also be taking on the daring challenge this Friday.

In September 2018, the Whiston and St Helens Hospitals’ Charity launched an appeal to raise £10,000 towards projects that will benefit patients and their families.

Seven months on the total raised stands at an incredible £8,000.

Elizabeth Titley, charity manager said: “This is a fantastic amount, but we can’t stop there, we have to keep pushing so that we smash through our total. The abseil will help to take our total to new heights and we can’t thank our brave fundraisers enough for taking part.”

Whiston Hospital is also holding its own fundraising abseil on Thursday, March 14, with the St Helens abseil taking place the day after.

Included in the brave bunch stepping over the edge at St Helens Hospital is 74-year-old Mayor of St Helens, Councillor Pat Ireland, who has called the abseil her "biggest challenge yet".

Cllr Ireland is raising funds for the Diabetes Centre at St Helens Hospital. She was diagnosed with type one diabetes around nine years ago after being taken ill on holiday.

She said: “When I first became the mayor, I hadn’t been up in a helicopter, so I said I’d go up in one if people sponsored me. I was rather scared but it was fabulous and managed to raise money for my charities.

“And then I thought – what else could I do? I held a ball which raised a lovely amount of money on Valentine’s Day – but I wanted a more physical challenge.

“I found out that Whiston and St Helens Hospitals’ Charity were holding two days of abseiling at Whiston and St Helens hospitals, I put myself forward and then I went cold all over – thinking ‘oh dear, why I have I said that?’”

“The Diabetes Centre saved my life really, and showed me how to live with diabetes – while the Steve Prescott Foundation is a fantastic local charity which does wonders in raising awareness for health and wellbeing and helping other charities.

“My time as mayor of St Helens is nearly at an end and I want to go out on a high, literally. Taking part in this abseil will help me to achieve this while topping up on my fundraising efforts for two wonderful causes.”

The money raised from the St Helens Hospital 10K appeal will be shared evenly across five separate projects to brighten the lives of patients.

This includes purchasing digital sky windows for patients receiving chemotherapy at the Lilac Centre, updating the children’s waiting area in the Outpatients Department, updating the hospital’s counselling room to provide a warm and comfortable environment, buying iPads to aid rehabilitation patients and using ‘patient pagers’ for the Burney Breast Unit.

The event will get underway at 9.30am, with Cllr Ireland’s abseil expected to take place at around midday. Members of the public are welcome to attend to show their support.

Anyone wanting to contribute to the Appeal can do so by calling the charity office on 0151 290 4400 or visiting justgiving.com/wshospscharity

See justgiving.com/fundraising/mayorpatireland for Cllr Ireland's appeal.

  • More information can be found emailing elizabeth.titley@sthk.nhs.uk or calling 0151 290 4400.