Burnley twin brothers to tackle National Three Peaks to raise money for mental health charity MIND

Ill equipped to deal with such a huge loss the twins had some time off from their college courses before returning to their studies to help keep some normality in their lives.

But at the weekends they found themselves in a downward spiral of drinking, partying and nursing hangovers.

“It was a way of blotting everything out, “ said Josh. “But after a while we came to realise that it wasn’t helping and it had to stop.”

Jacob said he was fed up with wasting every Sunday recovering from the night before so decided to spend the day in the outdoors walking.

That proved to be a turning point for these very brave and remarkable young men who are becoming mental health champions for their peers.

Jacob said: “It felt so good to be out in the open air going for a long walk so we decided to do it every weekend.”

The late nights canned, the twins, who are former pupils at Burnley’s Blessed Trinity RC College, stuck to their mission and having completed several challenging walks, including Helvellyn, Pen-Y-Ghent and Catbells, they came up with the idea of tackling the National Three Peaks Challenge which involves climbing the three highest peaks of Scotland, England and Wales within 24 hours. The total walking distance of climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales is 23 miles (37km) and the total ascent is 3064 metres (10,052ft) - twice the ascent of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, over a similar total walking distance. The total driving distance is 462 miles. As a training walk the brothers are going to walk the Yorkshire Three Peaks which is a 24-mile round trip route, and includes 1585m (5200ft) of ascent taking in the peaks of Pen-y-Ghent (694 metres), Whernside (736 metres) and Ingleborough (723 metres).

Josh and Jacob, who are now 23, decided the challenge was a good way to raise money for mental health charity MIND but they never expected the huge support they have received from family, friends and people who heard about their mission. They set up their own facebook page and so far have raised £1,250. Earlier this month 30 plus people joined them on a walk up Pendle hill and the boys were blown away by the support.

Josh said: “People we haven’t seen for years turned up, it was fantastic to see them.”

The twins both worked hard to secure themselves sheet metal worker apprenticeships six years ago. Josh works for Safran in Burnley and Jacob secured employment with British Aerospace, spending half the week in Barrow in Furness. Jacob said:”I left school with no real qualifications but losing my dad spurred me to want to do the best for myself and to make him proud. I wanted to show the people who said I would never make anything of my life they were wrong.”

As they finally come to terms with the loss of their father the twins admit it has brought them closer together as brothers. Josh said: “We talk to each other now, really properly talk, about how we feel and it definitely helps. I tend to bottle things up but now I feel I can talk openly about my feelings.

“We will never get over losing our dad but now we can come to terms with it and deal with the sadness, guilt and loss. We loved him very much and we know that he loved us too so that keeps us going and spurs us on to become better people and make him and our family proud.”

The twins will tackle the National Three Peaks in June and joining them will be their grandad Brad Thornton Anderson who will be their chauffeur.