Why I am climbing Mt Kilimanjaro - Caroline's Story

Why Mt Kilimanjaro?

I love Africa....having volunteered there twice before. There is something very inspiring there...the people, the wildlife, the landscape. I love an adventure, travelling to new and different places, so why not take on a once-in-a-lifetime challenge as well!

Who are RNIB? 

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is the UK's leading charity offering information, support and advice to almost two million people with sight loss. They provide information on eye conditions and support and advice for people living with sight loss, not just with braille and Talking Books, but with imaginative and practical solutions to everyday challenges. They also support research into sight loss and eye health issues.

Why do I want to raise £3,600 for RNIB?

I have Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). RP is the name given to a diverse group of inherited eye disorders affecting the retina. RP causes permanent changes to your vision including difficulty with vision in dim light or the dark and the loss of your side or peripheral vision. Now you know why I bump into things all the time! :)


Diagnosed 10 years ago I have never been given the opportunity to drive as my vision is so bad. Losing my peripheral vision means not noticing when someone is standing next to me or extra concentration when walking through a busy shopping centre. My eyes take a while to adapt to sharp changes in light brightness like entering a dim lite pub on a sunny day and I always rely on someone else finding a seat in the cinema if the lights are already off. Travel is the biggest pain relying on favours or working out public transport timetables and routes. It wears you down sometimes and I always worry about how much more my vision will deteriorate. There is no cure but they are working on it!

Ways to support:

• Keep up-to-date with our training and fundraising efforts. Ways to do that include this blog, or my Twitter account @tigercazstar
• Read more about the great work RNIB do or read more about my condition RP
• Help me exceed my fundraising target and leave me a good luck a message on my JustGiving site

Did you know?

Every day 100 people in the UK start losing their sight.

Thank you!

Your support is really appreciated and whilst I am attempting this challenge it will get me through!

Much love, Caroline xx

Why I want to raise money - Amy's story

Why MNDA?

MNDA is a charity that is very close to my heart since my Grandfather past away just over 10 years ago. He was a fit and active man, once serving in the RAF as a physical training instructor and playing rugby for the Saracens. In 1997 he fell ill but it was not until December 2000, 3 years later, that he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. Unfortunately he lost his fight shortly after diagnosis, passing away in April 2001. I aim to raise £3600 for the charity through Trekking Mount Kilimanjaro. Through this I will also aim to get the charity the publicity it deserves and raise their awareness.

Since I have started this fundraising I have been told about lots more cases of the disease and who it affects people, so many more people than I first imagined.

So… what is MND? 

Motor Neurone Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the upper and lower motor neurones. Degeneration of the motor neurones leads to weakness and wasting of muscles, causing increasing loss of mobility in the limbs, and difficulties with speech, swallowing and breathing.

A little bit about the Association…

The Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), has a mission to fund and promote research to bring about an end to MND. Until then they do, all that we can to enable everyone with MND to receive the best care, achieve the highest quality of life possible, and die with dignity. They also do all that they can to support the families and carers of people with MND

Ways to support: 

• The best way to support is by raising awareness which can be done by sharing this blog http://www.amyandcarolinekili2012.blogspot.com/ and by sharing the MNDA website: http://www.mndassociation.org/ .

• If you would like to support my trek please visit my justgiving account  

• You can give directly to the association.

• Volunteering, I've given links for my local branches: Leicester Branch,  North Yorkshire Branch or Yorkshire Dales Branch:

Finally,

MND kills 5 people everyday in the UK

This disease affects people in different ways, so no two people have exactly the same symptoms, but it is rapid, progressive and unfortunately fatal. The cause is unknown and there is no known cure!

Line Dancing Fundraiser

Cowgirls ready to go

What a great fundraising night on 18th May at Richmond Cricket Club.

Mary Street and her dancers got everybody moving, teaching the moves as she went.

There were hats, leather waist coats, stirrups and masses of fun.

Some free stylin

 Live music was provided by John Poffley, complete with quiz and cakes for prizes 

 The night was a great success raising just over £600 for Motor Neurone Disease Association and Royal National Institute of Blind People


Team Dennis

There are some massive thanks to say to those who made the night happen

Fiona Bates for producing the poster and Judith Brown for designing the tickets.
Richmond Cricket Club and Gemma Ingleby for arranging the venue.

Janine Walsh, Mary Street and her dancers. John Poffley for the music and Alicja Kloskowska for the cakes. Richmond Swimming Pool, The Station Cinema, Liberty Health Club and Cotswolds Harrogate for their donations.

Sophie Johnson for basically arranging the whole thing :)

and finally everybody who came and made the event such a great success.....

THANK YOU xx

Line Dancing Fundraiser and some more Thank you's

Having finally recovered from the Yorkshire 3 Peaks we have turned our attentions to fundraising as there is still a long way to go.   First up, we are organising a Line dancing Fundraiser Richmond Cricket Club  Friday 18th May From 7pm It's for everyone, whether you're the national champion or have two left feet. Come have a laugh and learn the moves to support important charities. Tuition will be provided by Mary Street, so no need to worry if you've never tried line dancing before!! Live music from John Poffley - check him out at http://www.youtube.com/user/jqp5883 Tickets £10 (Inc supper)- All proceeds go to charity Invite friends and family for an evening of fun, frivolity & fund raising! Contact either Amy on 07590 734324 or Sophie Johnson 07754  088310 for tickets   Thank You's I would like to say a massive thank you to Shepshed Building Society for their very generous donation, it has helped me take a huge step towards my fundraising target. It is great to see local businesses giving back to their community and in doing so supporting a great cause and raising awareness of Motor Neurone Disease.   Also a thank you to William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary and MP for Richmond for his kind donation.    And finally Fiona Bates for producing the poster you can see above, Sophie Johnson for her supremo organising skills and Judith Brown for designing the tickets.

Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge

That's Pen-y-Ghent (691 metres), Whernside (728 metres) and Ingleborough (723 metres) totalling 39.2km (24.5 miles) in under 12 hours.

Did we do it????

Ready to go

5.30am Saturday morning and the challenge starts - that's the challenge of getting out of bed 'are we really doing this? Why?' We were on the road by 6.15am, joining us was Gemma and Ollie the dog. Just over an hour later and we were parked up and ready to go.

Official start time 7.47am, we left Horton in Ribblesdale and started the climb to Pen-y-Ghent. The weather wasn't the best and we couldn't see the top, not sure if this was a good or bad thing. 

Just see the top

Half way up

We climbed steadily walking through fields, Pen-y-Ghent looking more daunting the closer we got. The terrain changed and we started our scramble to the top. 

One down

At 9.15am we summited the first peak and took a well earned rest. One down! We grabbed a quick bite to eat before starting towards Whernside off in the distance.

On to Whernside

It's only the first one!

This part of the walk was tough. After dropping down from Pen-y-Ghent onto Horton Moor the ground was one massive bog. After negotiating the swamp maze and unsticking Ollie - twice, we looked no closer to Whenside. Quiet disheartening!

Looking back to Pen-y-Ghent

Ribblesdale Viaduct

We continued to trudge on and finally made it to Ribblesdale Viaduct. It was nice to start climbing again and gave us a boost.

Half way up Whernside

Reaching the top seemed to take forever, you walk along the railway then double back on yourself whist slowly climbing. The cloud had lifted revealing great views of Yorkshire, the Lake district and .....the sea!




We reached the summit of Whernside at 2.05pm, six hours into the challenge.

Two down

After a spot of lunch the walk was back on with an extremely steep decent off the top. Another tough challenge as legs were starting to tire.

Joined by the support group

Sun setting over Ingleborough

The cavalry arrive!
At Chapel le Dale we met Clare, Graham, Sophie and Lee. Which was amazing, the support lifted us all, the sun came out and we were excited about the start of Ingleborough.

That was until we arrived at the sheer rock face that stood in our way. Without doubt the toughest climb of the day, an evil little secret!

and that's three!

Finally we made it to the top at 5.10pm, very hot and knackered, but that was the last peak done and all we needed to do now was get down.

Home straight

The walk from Ingleborough to Horton is a pretty one - the limestone pavements would be fun to play on in a different circumstance. As it was the last two hours were really tough mentally and physically so heads were down and we ploughed on back to the village, arriving at 7.22pm. We did it!!!

Challenge completed in 11 hours and 35 minutes

A massive thanks to everyone who helped out - Gemma for joining us all the way, Sophie, Clare, Graham and Lee for giving us the final push to the finish and Ollie dog who we think completed it three times over.

It was definitely a good training session for Kilimanjaro in 6 months time! If you would like to sponsor us the links are at the top of the page :)

Amy and Caroline x

A quick catch up before the first big challenge

So it's been a while since our last post and there are a few bits to catch up on before we push ourselves to the limit tomorrow and undertake the Yorkshire 3 Peaks!

First some statistics - I love a good stat!
Since the beginning of the year (which is when we really started the training for our trek) we have;
- ran 59.8 miles
- walked 31.3
- cycled 13
- swam 1 mile
A total of 105.1 MILES. That's one and a half Kilimanjaro Treks :)

Foggy start

No I-dear

Our training has continued with an 8 hour walk round Charnwood. We started in Bradgate park and walked via the Leicestershire round to Markfield and then Thornton Reservoir.

After a sport of lunch we continued on the Ivanhoe Way, round Bardon Hill and looped back to Beacon Hill.

The final leg was through Woodhouse Eaves and Swithland Woods back to Bradgate. 19miles in total and a good practise for the 25 miles on Saturday



Spooky Castle

Finally a big thank you to Morrisons, who let us do a bucket collection outside their Loughborough store and we raised just under £70

Training walk number 2!

When: 25th February

Where: Mam Tor

Distance: 15 km

Total climb: 520m

Time: 5 hr 12 minutes

Our second training walk took us back to the Peak District but for a more hilly walk to train those legs to climb, climb, climb!

Scary Peveril Castle

Section 1: to Hope

We set off on a very muddy path away from Castleton towards hope, it was a nice easy start, despite missing the path and having a small backtrack ;-)

Section 2: to the summit of Loose Hill

Loose Hill - a long way to go!


Sticking with the muddy theme we started the accent to Loose Hill, every two steps forward involved one sliding backwards in the mud. Good training for those legs!

Which way?

Evil sheep!

It was a long climb but finally we made it and stopped for a quick bite to eat. This was literally a quick bit as a sheep had eyed us up and made a beeline straight for Caroline, quiet funny for me, probably not so much for her!



On top of Loose Hill

The path ahead to Mam Tor

Section 3: to Hollins Cross

Once up on top of Barkers Bank it was hard work, the wind was immense and battered us all the way. The walking is easy going however and the amazing views over Edale and back towards Hope made up for the wind - glad we picked a clear day. There was little shelter so we were relieved when we made it to Hollins Cross where we could duck out the wind for a rest. While we sat we looked over to the old road at Winnats Pass, quiet impressive!

Section 4: to the summit of Mam Tor 

Summit of Mam Tor - it looks like the arctic

Next came the fight for the summit, I've never walked in wind so strong. Parents were holding onto their children, gloves and hats flying off, it sure got the adrenaline going.

At the summit we sheltered behind the trig pillar before building up to the decent. This was more hard work than getting to the top, it's impossible to look elegant whist not trying to fall flat on your face! Finally we made it down to the car park, passing many an unsuspecting walkers on the way down.

Playing on the Limestone Way

Path back to Castleton

Section 5: back to Castleton
The next section of the walk was fairly dull, the road/track takes you past Windy Knoll onto the Limestone Way. The path quickly drops away down into Cave Dale offering great views of Perevil Castle and the path we'd just done. Once down into Castleton it's a short walk past a pleasant village green to the car park.

A slightly longer 15km this time with a lot more hills, well on the way to Kili!

Thanks for reading! Amy and Caroline