A family fundraising trek turned into two surprise royal run-ins on the mountains.
Ted, from Sutton Coldfield, was pushed and carried in his wheelchair by his father Pete and 15 other family members and friends during the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for children’s charity Molly Ollys.
On each mountain, the group met the Princess of Wales, who chatted to Ted, asked how he was doing and has since donated to his fundraiser.
“When I did realise [it was her] I just thought it was amazing and incredible,” Ted told BBC Radio WM about meeting the princess.
Pete said: “The first time we ran into her, I was at the back of the group and I obviously knew we’d stopped to speak to someone, but I didn’t know who they were speaking to.
“A good 30 seconds must have passed before they called me forward and I was just dumbfounded.”
Pete said that because she was in her walking clothes, he might not have necessarily noticed her.
“I think I might have just walked past her,” he added.
Catherine started the conversation with the group after seeing Ted in his wheelchair being carried up the mountain, Pete said.
“She was lovely, she was being very motherly to Ted, asking all the questions a mum would ask, seeing if he was warm enough, if he’d got some sleep after the first mountain, and it was lovely.
“Shockingly when she went past us on the second morning she said ‘hi Ted’ and we were double taking she’d remembered his name. It was amazing.”
The Three Peaks Challenge involves climbing the highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales, Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis and Snowdon, over the course of a day.
Catherine took on the challenge to raise funds for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, in aid of the hospital where she was treated for cancer.
Speaking about the effort, Pete said: “It was tough, a lot tougher than expected.
“Scafell Pike was absolutely brutal, we got wet the whole of that morning and had 64 km/h winds, we had snow on top of Ben Nevis, we went for every season basically across the 30 hours.”
The group beat their 30-hour target by 10 minutes, with some of the group running with Ted over the final stretch.
“It was very tough but very funny as well because I kept bouncing up and down,” Ted said.
Pete, a keen mountaineer, said his son was diagnosed with an aggressive spinal tumour and left paralysed at the age of three after his legs “just stopped [working]” one day.
“His back was hurting but he was only young and couldn’t articulate what the problem was,” Haslam said.
“Turns out the tumour was doubling in size every 24 hours.”
Their fundraiser for Warwick-based Molly Ollys, which supports children with life-threatening illnesses, has now passed its £5,000 target and exceeded £11,000.
“It’s just going crazy, because we bumped into her Royal highness, it’s got a load of media attention,” Pete said.
“We’re getting so many more donations, which is absolutely incredible, and some of the messages people are leaving are really inspiring, really lovely.
“Hopefully this sort of thing will inspire other kids in similar situations like Ted to just think outside the box and see what they’re capable of.”
Read more from BBC News.
