17/04/2026
During the 10 months I spent photographing the ‘ordinary people’ of Keighley for my K-Town People project, I unearthed some amazing stories and captured images of many extraordinary ordinary people.
Tom Hollins is certainly one of these. The consultant anaesthetist from Airedale Hospital is one of the country’s top endurance runners, having won the brutal Spine Race, which involves a continuous traverse of the 268 miles of the Pennine Way in January. In 2025 he posted the fastest self-supported time in winter to summit the 214 Lake District fells described in Alfred Wainwright’s series of renowned hand-drawn guidebooks.
Now, he plans to go further, and complete the Lakeland Round: all the Wainwrights, plus the hills described in the author’s eighth volume, The Outlying Fells of Lakeland – 330 peaks in total, again self-supported, meaning there will be no team providing navigation help, food, or extra gear for foul weather. He aims to cover a distance he has never previously achieved in his challenges.
Tom is taking the challenge to raise funds for the Airedale Hospital and Community Charity’s emergency department appeal, to help refurbish the paediatric waiting room, the paediatric resuscitation room, and the bereavement suite.
He will begin his Lakeland Round challenge at the Moot Hall in Keswick on 5 May. Donation can be made via his JustGiving page. https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/toms-wainwright-challenge
During the challenge, you can follow his progress via the Kong Tracking page. https://live.kongtracking.com/LKLNDRND2026/
