Taking on Britain’s Most Brutal Race for Silx Teen Bar

My name is Ian Cowie. I’m 34 years old, born and raised in Blyth, and in January 2027 I will be taking on the Montane Winter Spine Race to raise money for Silx Teen Bar.

Silx has been a vital part of the Blyth community for as long as I can remember, but this isn’t just another local charity I have chosen to support. Silx played a genuine part in helping me turn my own life around.

My story isn’t straightforward, and I’m not proud of many of the choices I made when I was younger.

From a young age, I became heavily involved in drinking, drugs and everything that came with that lifestyle. What started with drinking and taking drugs became something far more serious. I became addicted to Class A drugs, surrounded myself with the wrong people and made one bad decision after another.

Drink, drugs and crime became normal to me.

I wasn’t thinking about my future, my family or the damage I was causing. I was simply existing from one day to the next, feeding an addiction and heading further down a path that was eventually going to end in prison or death.

When I was only 19 years old, my choices caught up with me and I received a nine-year prison sentence.

Sitting inside a prison cell at that age, knowing I had thrown away a massive part of my life, was the reality of where my decisions had taken me. I could have blamed my upbringing, my environment or the people around me, but ultimately they were my choices and I had to take responsibility for them.

When I finally tried to change, I didn’t need people judging me or telling me I was a lost cause. I needed some guidance. I needed an opportunity and someone willing to believe that I could become more than the person I had been.

That is where Silx helped me.

Silx helped me secure my first proper job and gave me some of the guidance and direction I desperately needed. That opportunity might not sound massive to some people, but to me it was life-changing. It helped me move away from my old environment and showed me there was another way to live.

Silx Teen Bar has supported young people in Blyth since 1996. It provides a safe and welcoming place for young people, free recreational and educational activities, employment guidance, help with CVs and job applications, training opportunities and practical support with issues such as housing, debt and benefits.

Their detached youth workers also go directly onto the streets of Blyth to build relationships with young people who might never walk into a youth centre or ask for help themselves.

They work with the young people who are often the hardest to reach. The ones who might be struggling at home, unemployed, getting involved with drugs, hanging around the wrong people or simply lacking direction and someone positive to guide them.

I know how important that support can be because I was one of those young people.

Today, my life looks completely different.

I’m clean from drugs, I work as a scaffolder, run my own property businesses and have built a property portfolio across Northumberland. I’m an ultramarathon runner, a mountain climber and, most importantly, I’m a partner and a father to two children.

I have gone from drug addiction, crime and prison to building a life I once would never have believed was possible.

I’m not sharing this because I want praise or sympathy. I’m sharing it because there will be young people in Blyth right now who feel trapped in the same type of lifestyle I was trapped in.

They might believe they are too far gone, that nobody cares or that their life can never change.

It can change but sometimes people need guidance, support and someone willing to give them their first opportunity.

Silx did that for me.

The Winter Spine Race

To raise money for Silx, I will be taking on what is widely known as one of the toughest endurance races in the world: the Montane Winter Spine Race.

Starting in Edale on 10 January 2027, I will attempt to travel the entire 268-mile length of the Pennine Way before finishing in Kirk Yetholm on the Scottish border.

The race is non-stop and has a cutoff of 156 hours, which is six and a half days. The route includes more than 10,700 metres of climbing more ascent than climbing Mount Everest from sea level.

It crosses some of the most remote and exposed parts of England during the middle of winter, including the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, North Pennines, Hadrian’s Wall and the Cheviot Hills.

There will be no warm hotel room or comfortable bed waiting for me each night. The clock never stops.

I will have to keep moving through darkness, freezing temperatures, wind, rain, snow, ice, deep mud and miles of Pennine bogs. I will be carrying mandatory survival equipment and everything I need to keep myself safe on some of the most exposed terrain in the country.

The race organisers list possible nighttime temperatures as low as minus 10°C, with only around eight hours of daylight each day.

I expect to deal with extreme exhaustion, sleep deprivation, swollen feet, blisters, hunger, pain and the constant mental battle telling me to stop.

There will be times when I’m soaking wet, freezing cold and completely alone in the darkness. There will be times when every part of my body is hurting and I still have hundreds of miles left to cover.

I will need to navigate across remote mountains and moorland while exhausted, make sensible decisions when my mind is barely functioning and continue putting one foot in front of the other for potentially six and a half days.

This will be the hardest physical and mental challenge I have ever taken on.

But I have chosen something this brutal because Silx deserves more than an easy fundraiser.

They helped me when I had nothing to offer them in return. They supported me when I was struggling, helped me find my first proper job and played a part in putting me on the path that led to the life I have today.

Now it is my turn to give something back.

Every donation, no matter how big or small, will help Silx continue providing young people in Blyth with a safe place, positive opportunities, employment guidance, training and potentially the intervention that stops another young person from going further down the wrong path.

During those dark moments on the Pennine Way when I’m freezing, exhausted and questioning whether I can continue I’ll remind myself who I’m doing this for.

I’ll remember the young person I used to be.

I’ll remember the people who refused to give up on me.

And I’ll keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Please donate whatever you can and help me give something back to an organisation that gave so much to me when I needed it most.