A six-year-old boy who went viral for climbing 12 of the highest mountains in the UK after wanting to become the youngest person to climb Everest is to take on another hiking challenge.
Oscar Burrow completed the 12 mountains feat – which together totalled the height of Everest – on May 29, but did not want to stop there.
He is to don his hiking boots again to take on the National Three Peaks Challenge with his grandfather Mark Burrow, 68, and his seven-year-old friend Ollie Perkins, and continue raising money for Derian House Children’s Hospice in Chorley.
The trio, accompanied by Oscar’s father Matt Burrow, 38, and Ollie’s father Paul Perkins, will drive between the highest mountains in Wales, England and Scotland – Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis respectively – from August 2, in the hope of completing the challenge within 24 hours.
Mr Burrow, a project manager in the NHS, told the PA news agency: “Oscar really wanted to do the Three Peaks with my father, and my dad’s getting older but is as fit as he can be now so I said ‘Let’s have a go’.
“I told him to set a time which he can try and beat when he is older and he said ‘I want to do it in 24 hours’.”
“This one will be interesting and may be challenging because they will be doing three mountains in a row, but Oscar is massively positive, which is great.”
He said the boys are particularly “excited” about camping on the move.
“They’re going to be spending a bit of time camping in Paul’s campervan,” Mr Burrow said.
“They can put the awning up on the side of it and they’re going to sleep in that down in Wales, and then we’ll move to a different vehicle to go north and sleep in the car, so they’ll be looking forward to that element.
“They’ll also be looking forward to how quickly they can do it really.”
In June, Oscar received a letter from Kensington Palace, from the Prince of Wales, congratulating him on completing the 12 peaks, with Mr Burrow adding that they hope to send a letter back to William after Oscar completes the Three Peaks.
“Oscar was quite amazed to get the letter because you don’t expect to get that sort of mail and it was very personalised,” he said.
“When we explained to Oscar more about Prince William, he said ‘Wow’ and he’s really excited about writing back after doing the Three Peaks and hopefully reaching £40,000.
“We’re going to pop the letter in a frame so he can hang it on the wall.”
Training for the hikes has mainly taken the form of Parkruns, where the boys have tried to beat their own personal best times, with the idea being sparked by a professional mountaineer who has reached the summit of Everest 17 times.
“Oscar met Kenton Cool, who has been to the top of Everest 17 times, as he was doing a tour of the UK and came to Lancaster,” Mr Burrow said.
“Kenton met Oscar for half-an-hour and gave him some merchandise and signed his charity T-shirt and explained to him what the Parkrun movement is.
“The next day we joined Kenton for the Lancaster Parkrun, and every week for the last six weeks we’ve done the Lancaster Parkrun.
“Last week, Oscar managed to go under 30 minutes for his 5k and constantly asks if he has run a faster time than the week before.”
Oscar has passed the halfway mark of his £60,000 fundraising target, with Mr Burrow adding that he feels “very fortunate” that people have donated to the cause.
“We’ve increased the target several times because we thought, if we can raise it, why not keep going”, he said.
“We feel very fortunate to be able to do it and people still think it’s still worth donating to.
“Oscar always really enjoys going down to the hospice and seeing how the money will help poorly children.”
Pascale Harvie, president and general manager at JustGiving, said: “Oscar is a superstar!
“What he’s achieved at such a young age is truly remarkable. When I heard the news that he was taking on another big fundraising challenge, after only just completing his Mount Everest feat, I couldn’t quite believe it.
“From all of us at JustGiving, good luck, Oscar. It’s people like you that make our world a better place.”
Oscar’s fundraising page can be found here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/oscar-burrow1
