Liverpool couple to climb Snowdon three times in one day for charities who helped their little boy 

A Liverpool couple are climbing Snowdon three times in one day to say thank you to the charities who helped them and their little boy after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Lynsey and Dave MacMillan, who’ll be joined by friends and relatives for their epic ‘Snowdon 6’ challenge tomorrow, are hoping to raise around £20,000 for three organisations whose support meant the world ‘in the darkest times’.

“It is going to be tough,” says Dave, 39, from Old Swan. “In fact, horrendous is a word I’d use!

“But thinking about our son Lucas will help us through.

“As will knowing that by us doing this those charities will be able to help more families like ours when they get the devastating news … and that because of them our little boy is recovering really well.”

Lucas MacMillan had just celebrated his second birthday when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour in September 2023.

Dave, head of estates and facilities at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital where wife Lynsey, 37, is also a nurse explains:

“We’d started to notice that he was regressing with his physical ability, for example his pincer movement with his finger and thumb stopped being as accurate and he’d shake when he was getting a crisp out of a bag.

“He would be walking, and then he’d suddenly stop walking and get a bit wobbly.”

Lucas was referred to Alder Hey Hospital who did a series of tests and, while most came back okay, there was one marker that suggested everything might not be fine.

“He was sent for an MRI and that was when they found out he had the tumour,” adds Dave.

“You can’t put into words how you feel when you’re given news like that, it’s devastating obviously, but the staff at Alder Hey were incredible at articulating to us just what it meant and what was the worst case scenario, along with the positive signs.”

Lucas, who has older sisters Rosa, 11, and Grace, eight, had a pylocytic astrocytoma which, although benign, caused posterior fossa syndrome leading to speech and balance problems.

Surgeons operated to remove the tumour and later fitted a shunt to drain fluid from his brain, and Lucas has subsequently had physiotherapy to help with developmental delays and regain his strength.

“We’ve since been back to Alder Hey to speak to the Board of Directors about Lucas and what was a good news story for them, and Lucas was running around giving everyone high-fives!” smiles Dave.

Lucas, three, is now doing well and is in full-time nursery and, while he may be held back a year while he recaptures full cognitive ability, he is rapidly catching up to where he should be.

Support from the charities Lynsey and Dave are raising money for have played a huge role in that.

The pair – together with Lynsey’s sister Louise Lacey, her auntie Lorraine, friends from the gym and engineering colleagues at work – are raising money for:

The Children’s Brain Injury Trust which provides practical and emotional support for parents

OSCAR’s paediatric Brain Tumour Charity 

and

The Danny Green Fund, which provided Lucas with a specialist pram.

Lucas was given a special walking frame and helped with hydrotherapy and hippotherapy, which uses the movement of a horse as a therapeutic tool – in Lucas’s case to improve his balance.

“The reason we are doing this is to try to say thank you to the three charities who were there for us,” says Dave, “so they can be there for other people too.

“They provided things we didn’t even know we needed, and it was just nice knowing somebody cared; you have very dark times in those early days and it’s good to know there are people who understand what you are going through and want to help.

“We want someone else to have that benefit too.”

Although already fit – Dave did the Three Peaks with work colleagues – the couple have spent the last six months training for the challenge, in the gym and with runs up Moel Famau and around the Pennines.

But they’ll still need every bit of strength and stamina: “Going up and down Snowdon in a day, we’ll travel around 40km and a total ascent of 3,000 metres,” says Dave.

“We are setting off at 5am and reckon it should take about 16-17 hours to get up and down three times.

“It will be hard – and I’m carrying around 19.8kg/44lbs, the equivalent of Lucas’s weight in a rucksack! – but it will be a massive achievement to raise so much money to split between those special charities.

“Lynsey’s emotions have been running all over the place this week and I don’t think you can articulate how we’ll feel when we’ve done it – you can’t give up!

“But I think it will be a mixture of pride and happiness, knowing that we’ll be giving other people like us a little glimmer of light and hope when they are going through it like we did.”

You can support Lynsey and Dave’s Campaign here and here.

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