It all started when “our” Megan McFarlane found out that The Fair Earth Foundation, a registered UK charity, runs in the first week of every month a special challenge to climb Mt Teide. Well, she, together with Sam Finlayson and Lucie Grosjean climbed El Teide last month and made a different type of contribution to ARCHELON in 2020, one that is worth a special mention!

Megan informed us two weeks ago that via their participation in the Teide Challenge last October, over £5,000 was raised by people and organisations supporting the Fair Earth Foundation, and a part of it will reach ARCHELON as a donation. “We are honoured and touched. Your donations are really important!” said Daphne Mavrogiorgos, ARCHELON’s Director.

“I never had any doubt that I would be putting ARCHELON forward for this, as I knew that you have struggled to carry on your work during the pandemic, especially as all public awareness opportunities and events were unable to occur throughout the season and beyond”, Megan replied.

When asked to describe her experience, Megan said: “Climbing El Teide was the ultimate combination of determination and teamwork. There were difficult parts but also funny moments, and as a team we pushed through, supporting one another and taking in the beautiful starry sky on all our breaks. It is a gruelling 7 hours but is definitely worth the challenge and the sunrise at the top made it all worthwhile. It’s almost as if you’re on Mars!”.

There is more to this story. Eve Pillmore, another one of “us” from the nesting beach projects and the Rescue Centre, has just returned from the November climb on El Teide! She also nominated ARCHELON for her fundraising. And in one word, she found the experience “inspiring”!

We thank all four of them for making this type of donation to ARCHELON possible. You can do that too, with the Teide Challenge. Get to fundraise £250 through the dedicated JustGiving team page, and you will get your flights to Tenerife South Airport. Fair Earth Foundation will take care of everything else to get you to the top of Teide so you can wave the ARCHELON flag!