Welcome to my Blog!
Well - here we go! I've never done this before so bear with me as I endeavor to write back to you, updating our progress as we head off to Tanzania in an attempt to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro.
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| Mt Kilimanjaro |
Below is an introduction to our trip - please use the links to find out more!
In late 2011, I had the opportunity to apply to join an
expedition to summit Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, the highest free standing
mounting in the world. Having done so, the team agreed that whist realising our
own ambitions and dreams in attempting such an feat – we should endeavor to
raise awareness and funding for charity at the same time.
So, for the last 12 months we have held many events to
fundraise for our chosen charity – MNDA (http://www.mndassociation.org/).
Several of the team I am climbing with, play and coach football for a local
side and are involved in the Youth teams. We were aware of two children in the
youth teams whose father had recently not been well – his name – Alistair
Banks. He had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and knew that it was
killing him with no known cure. Alistair became the face of MNDA after his
diagnosis and described himself as an ‘Incurable Optimist’ to help and inspire
others with the disease to beat MND. You can find out more about Alistair
at http://alistairtheoptimist.org/
Once we discussed out intentions with him – he endorsed our
efforts to raise awareness of MND and our fundraising to help towards finding a
cure for this horrendous condition. Unfortunately Alistair was unable to revel
in our intended success, as 2 years after his diagnosis he passed away in
January 2013.
In his memory we are determined to smash though our
fundraising target for MNDA of £28,700 and raise in excess of £35,000.
I will be leaving on Saturday 1st of
June to climb 19,341ft (just under 6km) straight up. The final days climb
starts at 11pm and lasts 16 hours as we climb through the night to
reach the summit at sunrise around 7am. After just 15mins (at this
altitude there is only 40% of the oxygen available to that at sea level and
acute altitude sickness is a real danger) we will descend around 8000ft to our
final camp. It will be bizarre knowing that stood on the summit, I will be higher
than many of the short haul planes that travel across Europe daily!
I hope that you are able to help support myself and this
fantastic charity for this expedition, because while I will be attempting
something amazing - MNDA will be able to use the funds to enhance the
lives of so many people, not just now but also in the future.
To find out more or donate – please go to :http://wwwjustgiving.com/june2013-kilimanjaroformnda
You can also find us on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/pages/June2013-KilimanjaroforMNDA/274441369322695?fref=ts
