E-M-Power Challenge raises nearly £81,000, and counting

Gibraltarian wheelchair user Eric Rowbottom is just £19,000 short of his target to raise £100,000 for the Special Needs Action Group (SNAG) and the GBC Open Day Fund.

Mr Rowbottom, 59, completed a gruelling nine-hour challenge last month, dragging himself up the length of Mediterranean Steps and inspiring a community with his positivity and determination.

His core goal was to raise awareness of the challenges faced by many disabled people in the community, while proving too that physical disability is no barrier.

But he and the team behind the ‘Eric-Med Steps-Power’ (E-M-Power) challenge announced they had also managed to raise the remarkable sum of £80,870 as of October 31.

Mr Rowbottom said the money was still coming in and that another announcement would follow in the coming days.

Mediterranean Steps is challenging for most people. It takes the walker from Jews’ Gate on the southern end of the Nature Reserve at 180m above sea level, up towards O’Hara’s Battery at 419m, close to the summit of the Rock.

The steep, rugged, narrow pathway with some 900+ steps to climb to the top of the Rock, the picturesque views of the eastern side of the Rock have made it a favourite for many.

But for Mr Rowbottom, who has used a wheelchair since he contracted polio at age eight, it had been one of those seemingly impossible dreams until he completed the challenge last month.