WALKING helped Richard Williams lose more than nine stone and now he's stepping up to a new challenge – taking on the Three Peaks in aid of a trio of charities.

Richard, from Wrexham, will embark on the challenge with Castle Green Homes colleagues in the summer, but it's something he could only dream of doing just 15 months ago.

“In 2023 I had a bit of a scare in life and the doctor said to me 'you are 50 and if you carry on the way you are, within five years you will have a heart attack, a stroke type, one diabetes and you might die',” Richard recalled.

“I was 22 stone,  my knees were hurting and I was quite depressed.”

He'd had to have a seat belt extender on a flight and couldn't fit through a scaffold on a job. He was so embarrassed he'd make excuses not to attend social events.

He'd previously tried various diets with mixed results

“I decided in December 2023 to go on a mission – if I'd waited until January, I never would have done it. I started off cutting food portions down and eating fresh food, then started walking a bit at a time,” Richard explained.

His old diet consisted of three cans of energy drinks, chocolate and “all the unhealthy stuff”. Now he takes a packed lunch to work with wraps and fruit in, making a conscious choice to control portion size.

He said people started noticing his weight loss after around four stone.

Richard, operations director at St Asaph-based Castle Green Homes, spoke at the company's staff conference about his journey and moved some colleagues to tears, while inspiring some to start losing weight.

“It took a lot of courage to talk to 100-plus people about how I concurred my weight problem,” he recalled.

He's now firmly focused on training for the Three Peaks. He'll be joined on the challenge by colleagues Nigel Pritchard, Mike Williams, Gethyn Evans and George Povey.

“The Three Peaks was something I'd dreamed of doing but couldn't because I was so overweight,” Richard explained.

“In August I started training hard, going up mountains including Snowdon. It killed me the first time but now I do it every month and in April and May I'll be doing it every week in preparation for tackling the Three Peaks in June.”

He's chosen to raise money for mental health charity Chasing the Stigma, Prostrate Cancer UK and Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue.

“I want to make a difference with a group of people. If we can raise £100,000 it would mean a lot to me,” Richard added.

Revealing why he chose the charities, he explained: “I was suffering in silence. Being overweight made me hate myself which I was depressed about, but I put a smiley face on at work. I was quite a good actor, masking and making people think I was jolly, but I wasn't happy with myself. It was like I was in a deep hole and when I tried to get out, I'd slip deeper but eventually I managed to climb to the top. Chasing the Stigma is a charity helping people who are struggling with their mental health, like I did, with the Hub of Hope, the UK's largest directory for mental health resources. With construction workers said to be four times more likely to die by suicide than the national average, it's a charity that's close to home.

Richard added: “Friends and colleagues have had prostate cancer, so helping that charity was a natural choice. Supporting Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue means that if someone is stranded there's help coming.”

The group will take on the Three Peaks on June 26. They aim to start at Ben Nevis at around 5pm, sleep during the overnight drive to Scafell Pike, scale that peak by 8am and then on to Snowdon, with a target of finishing by 4.30pm.

But Richard's not stopping there. He's already eyeing his next challenge – four peaks next year. In the meantime, donations to the Three Peaks fundraiser, in aid of Chasing the Stigma, Prostrate Cancer UK and Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue can be made here https://www.gofundme.com/f/k4bwr-three-peaks-challenge-for-three-charities