CLIMBING fan Sophie Semp is taking on a mountainous challenge this summer to raise funds for her daughter’s wheelchair basketball team.

Sophie, from Mobberley, will be joined by her husband Brad and eight friends for the ascent of the highest of the Yorkshire Three Peaks.

The team are raising money for the Vikings wheelchair basketball team, which her daughter Amelia, attends every week.

Amelia, aged 12, a student at Middlewich High School, has cerebral palsy, and has been going to the club for four years.

Sophie and her fellow climbers are hoping to raise £800 for the team to help pay for such costs as hall hire, specialist wheelchairs and referees.

She has set up a justgiving page, and has been delighted by the response, having increased the initial target from £500, and now being only £80 short of the £800 goal.

“The basketball team are always struggling with funding, and we have been asked as parents to help raise money,” said Sophie.

“My daughter goes to the club, which is based in St Helens, once a week and loves it.

“When she was eight she underwent quite major surgery and was bed-bound for eight weeks. She was very fed up, and we found this club, which has totally changed her.

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“Not only does it give her the chance to play a team sport, it allows her to make friends and socialise with people who understand her disability.

“It also allows siblings to get involved and play a sport with their brothers or sisters. Raising as much money as possible will help pay for the cost of the hall they train in and to carry on playing competitively.

“I am surprised and delighted at the amount we have already raised, and would like to thank everyone who has supported us.”

Sophie and her team are looking to climb the 2,400-foot Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales on Saturday, August 24.

It is two miles from the famous Ribblehead Viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle Railway, and on a clear day offers spectacular views of the Lake District and Morecambe Bay.

Sophie and her friends raised £1,200 a few years ago for cystic fibrosis research by climbing Mount Snowdon in north Wales.

If you would like to support the Whernside challenge visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/sophie-tompsett-1