The sister of the late Lewis Crawford is hosting a charity fundraiser in her brother's memory to mark what would have been his 29th birthday.

Lewis passed away peacefully at his home in Garvary, Enniskillen on June 17, 2021 at the age of 28 following a lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis.

To mark Lewis's first birthday since his passing, on Sunday, May 15, his sister Marnie Crawford, accompanied by friends and family, will climb up and down Topped Mountain 29 times with the aim of raising funds for the Northern Ireland Air Ambulance Service.

"We're hoping to raise money for the Air Ambulance because after Lewis's transplant, he would have used the Air Ambulance, not the emergency one but the Air Ambulance service quite a lot for his appointments back and forth to Newcastle," said Marnie, going on to explain that the day will also be an opportunity for Lewis's friends and family to get together and fondly share stories of him.

The strenuous challenge will take around nine hours to complete.

"We're starting at 9am and we're having three half hour breaks so it'll take up to around 6pm at least," said Marnie.

"It's three and a half times Ben Nevis so it is quite tough. Topped mountain isn't necessarily that long but it's very sharp and the 29 times will be horrendous," she added with a laugh: "I think when it comes to the whole 29 times, it could end up just being me to be honest."

In training for the challenge, Marnie has been climbing Topped every evening.

"We've been going up every evening. It takes around seven/eight minutes to go up and four to go down because we're jogging down everytime but obviously the pace will drop as time goes on.

"When you say Topped mountain, you think, 'oh it's just a wee hill' but 29 times up and down will be hard.

"My wee boy Jackson, he's been going up every day now trying to build his wee legs for it. I think he might make it up twice because he'll be wrecked. But bless him, he's all geared for it too," said Marnie.

To donate towards the fundraising hike in memory of Lewis, visit the JustGiving page at https://tinyurl.com/2tfvrjsb.

"Everyone is welcome to join in, complete the whole thing or even go up and down once, whatever you can manage. It will be a chance to remember Lewis and share our fond memories of him while gathering some money for a good cause at the same time.

"Every time we go up, we'll be thinking of Lewis. The 29 times obviously represents his 29 years so every time we're going up and down we'll be chatting about him, and he'll be there the whole time," Marnie told this newspaper.