Matt’s Mammoth Mountain Challenge

Matthew Riley was an incredibly popular and talented student who had a bright future ahead of him. Tragically, Matthew was killed in a motorbike crash while he was backpacking around Cambodia — a lifelong dream that he had.

Matthew, who was from Ketton, in Rutland, was only 23 years old when he had decided to spend four weeks of his summer break from Lincoln University, where he was studying psychology and marketing, in Cambodia. Tragically, Matthew was killed while riding his moped in the early hours of September 13, 2015 — just a few days before he was due to fly home.

When describing her son and the accident, Mrs. Riley said:

“He has always been gifted and caring, when he was 14 years old he shaved his hair off for charity.

“The details of the accident are very sketchy and we will never truly know what happened. We keep hearing things but we don’t know.

“He was very careful and wore a full-faced helmet. Matthew was staying at a hostel near to where the crash happened. We spoke every day. He was due to do his last year at university and the university has been very good. They have invited us to his graduation in September so he will still graduate.”

As well as graduating this year, Matthew had also planned to take part in the Three Peaks Challenge — a challenge which involves participants climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowden, the three highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales.

The intention behind taking part in the challenge was to raise money to donate to Diabetes UK and Mind in the memory of his late grandfather, Kevin Dowling, who died eight years ago, and his aunt, Anne-Marie Dowling, who sadly passed away three years ago.

Tragically, Matthew won’t get the chance to see all of his plans through but his family and friends have stepped up and decided to tackle the Three Peaks Challenge in Matthew’s honour — while also using the challenge to raise additional funds to donate to a Cambodian children’s charity called CamKids.

“Matthew had spent some of his time in Cambodia helping to teach children how to swim. That was very typical of him. He was a very sociable person and keen to help out where he could.

“The inequality in Cambodia is huge. There’s some very wealthy people driving around in nice cars and some extremely poor people, especially the children living on the streets.”

In preparation for the event, Garment Printing (the company that employs me) were humbled to be asked to print the T-Shirts which will be worn by everyone who is taking part in the challenge but we would like to do more and help them to raise money to help support the three incredibly worthwhile causes.

If you’d like to find out more about Matthew, Matt’s Mammoth Mountain Challenge or if you’d like to donate money to help the causes — you can visit Matt’s Mammoth Mountain Challenge GoFundMe page.

And please, help to spread the world because together we can change lives for the better.