Mark Peers was a patient at Alder Hey for almost 22 years. He was born with a Cleft Lip & Palate and developed a rare bone disease as a baby in his right leg known as Osteomylitis, these were the two main medical complications among many Mark experienced in his early years. He has had approximately 150 surgeries at Alder Hey including facial reconstruction and the amputation of his right leg when he was just eight years old in 2001. The amputation changed Mark’s life, but only for the better, enabling him to walk and enhancing his life considerably.

Mark, who served as a Public Governor of the hospital trust for 9 years as well as a volunteer for the Charity, has raised around £60,000 over the past few years and has inspired many members of his family and friends to do the same.

In the spring of 2014 following many years of rehabilitation, Mark felt he was finally in a position to ‘get out of his comfort zone’ when it came to fundraising and decided that he would like to embark on a physical challenge to raise money for the hospital where he had spent so much time in his formative years. Mark completed the Great Wall of China Trek as part of a bespoke Alder Hey overseas challenge, walking approximately 65km Mark was an inspiration to every trekker in the group, making light of his disability and completing each element of the challenge with a smile on his face. Not satisfied with one, Mark has since gone on to successfully complete four other treks overseas; the Grand Canyon Trek, reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu and most recently the Himalaya Trek in Nepal in 2024.

In October 2015 Mark was awarded a BEM (Medal of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s New Year honours list to acknowledge his charitable volunteering and fundraising for Alder Hey Children’s Charity. Mark’s medical past has also been a big driving force behind his chosen career as he possesses undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Psychology. He has worked in this field now for 10 years, most notably as a mental health practitioner for the last 6 years combining that with a specialist mentoring role for higher education students with special educational, mental health and physical needs.