A young man from Cornwall has been climbing mountains across the globe for a Cornish mental health charity Man Down – and now faces his biggest challenge yet.

Dan Lilley from Helston wanted to look for ways to increase awareness of the dangers of depression, anxiety, and loneliness following the Covid pandemic.

During lockdown the former RNLI volunteer noticed many of his male friends were struggling with mental health, which opened his eyes to the massive impact the restrictions had on people's mental health. Dan was also made aware that Cornwall has the highest third suicide rate in the UK.

 

Dan used to be a former RNLI volunteer

Dan used to be a former RNLI volunteer

 

Dan then decided to start a new adventure and learn to climb some of the world's tallest and most difficult-to-navigate mountains, with an aim of raising money for the charity, Man Down.

His initial aim was to climb five mountains in aid of the charity, which he has now achieved.

He is now looking to seek funds from the public to continue his journey and spread the work achieved so far by Man Down, by climbing even more mountains including to Mount Everest base camp in Asia, and Mount Lobuche

Along with world record holder Gesman Tamang, who is best known for his Netflix documentary '14 Peaks', they both aim to climb the mountain whilst Gesman teaches Dan how to climb 8,000-metre mountains, of which there are only 14 in the world.

 

On one of his recent trips up the mountains

On one of his recent trips up the mountains

 

To help Dan get to Mount Everest base camp he is making sponsored patch areas on his climbing jacket, available for local businesses for £250 or £400. The £400 sponsor package also includes a three-year logo deal for future climbs, which he said would be 6,000 metres plus.

To find out more about Dan's journey so far and to make contact about sponsorship email climbformandown@gmail.com or visit his Instagram page danlilley86