This past week Princess Beatrice travelled to Sicily where she participated in the final leg of the Virgin STRIVE Challenge 2016, an event in aid of Big Change, the charity she founded with Holly, Sam and Isabella Branson in 2012. Princess Beatrice individually raised more than £12,600.00 for Big Change and the total amount raised by participants in the event was more than £965,000.
On Tuesday, 27 September she completed a 3.3km swim across the Straits of Messina from Italy to Sicily. She also completed a cycling component, biking 110 kilometres before running and hiking to the summit of Mount Etna. Other team members and participants included Sir Richard Branson, Princess Beatrice’s charity co-founders Sam and Holly Branson and actor Adrian Grenier.
Princess Beatrice is no stranger to tackling daunting challenges having run the London Marathon for charity in 2010 – the first member of the royal family to do so. The then-21-year-old princess completed the 26.2-mile marathon as part of a ‘human caterpillar’ of 34 people connected by bungee cords. The group crossed the finish line in 5 hours, 13 minutes and 4 seconds and set a world record for the ‘most people to finish a marathon while tied together’.
More on the STRIVE from the website:
STRIVE is ‘about more than a physical challenge. It is the coming together of people bound by a common set of values and a belief in the power of a growth mindset to help young people thrive in life… We want people to have to strive, to feel the elation of struggling side by side with fellow strivers to get through the day, we want people to experience first hand what it takes to overcome serious obstacles. And all the time raising money for Big Change and learning how we can all come together to drive positive change for young people.’
The STRIVE Challenge was first run to great success in August 2014 when participants travelled from London to the Summit of the Matterhorn using only human power.
More on Big Change from the website:
‘Big Change was created to think differently about the role that charity can play in driving change for young people in the UK. Change only happens if you do things differently. That is why funds raised from STRIVE provide early stage funding for innovative projects that can drive long term change in the way we support young people- setting them up to thrive in life, not just in exams…All of our projects focus on driving system change so we are setting all young people up with a growth mindset.’