75 colleagues of Marty Stephens at KPMG have raised over £27,000 for the SMT in his memory, by completing the mammoth Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge.
The walk in early May this year went under the banner of The Marty Stephens “Smash It” Challenge. It keeps alive his legacy in the professional services firm KPMG in two ways.
Marty had been planning to lead a 3 Peaks walk, bringing together his passion for the outdoors with the chance to build team spirit and collaboration. And the walk’s title recalls his can-do attitude: when a deadline or challenge seemed too hard, he would always say “Don’t worry, we’ll smash it!”
And smash it they did. Not only did everyone complete the 24-mile challenge with over 5000 feet of ascent; but before the day was out they’d passed their £20,000 target, and before long donations had climbed past £27,000.
As a result of Marty’s love for Scottish mountaineering, his KPMG colleagues had selected the SMT to be the beneficiary of their fundraising. The organisers explained that, given Marty was “a Scot who loved climbing and the outdoors, we couldn’t think of a better organisation to support and to honour his memory.”
The 2023 event, say the organisers, “was a resounding success, and next year’s is already in mind.”
John Fowler, Chair of the SMT said ” I want to thank Marty Stephen’s colleagues for their inspiring and generous work, and wish them good fortune with their challenges in future years.”
Smash it! Main fundraising page: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/martystephenssmashitchallenge