Bereaved dad takes on hill and mountain challenge

Barry Curtis, right, has been accompanied by friends and family on his walks so far

A father has challenged himself to walk to the highest point of every county in England and Wales in memory of his teenage daughter.

Lucy Curtis, 17, died on New Year’s Day at Riverside Adolescent Unit in Bristol, which has since shut down.

Her father, Barry Curtis completed his sixth walk on Sunday in Monmouthshire, Wales.

He plans to complete 76 more walks including up Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons on 20 June, which would have been Lucy’s 18th birthday.

He said: "We've been supported by a charity called 2Wish, and they are a Welsh-based charity that started operating in England on New Year's Day, as kind of fate would have it, I suppose.

“They supply immediate support to families that have suffered an unexpected loss of a child. So, we're raising money for them.

"They've been an absolute lifesaver for us and other people as well.”

Mr Curtis has been inviting people to join him on the walks, via a Facebook page.

More than 35 people, including friends, family and his two dogs, have joined in at various points.

“There's a lot of different mixture of ages and abilities on the walks as well. So, it's really good for people to get to know each other,” Mr Curtis said.

Mr Curtis is originally from Cornwall, where he completed his first walk in May.

That was followed by walking up hills in Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Dorset before heading to Monmouthshire for his most recent walk.

He is determined to complete a total of 82 walks by autumn 2025.

Mr Curtis aims to reach the high point of every county in England and Wales

Mr Curtis said he was grateful to have met other bereaved families through 2wish.

He said: “So 2Wish run regular coffee mornings, in and around Bristol, and in fact, everywhere they operate, where families can get together and talk about what they're going through.

“So, we've made some really good friends through that.

“And what is really noticeable is that everybody's situation is obviously slightly different.

“But there are very, very broad similarities as well, between what everybody's going through.”

'Just sat with us'

Soon after Lucy died, 2Wish sent a support worker to the family.

Mr Curtis said: “She just came and sat with us.

“And she came every week for probably two months, two and a half months and would just sit with us, help us with anything practical, emotional, anything at all that she could support us with, is what they did.”

Mr Curtis said as time has passed, the family has been able to better cope with the loss.

The Riverside Adolescent Unit was shut down after an internal review by Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust said it could not “give assurance” the unit could deliver a safe level of care moving forward.