Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. On October 19^{th 2009 I begin my climb up} Mount Kilimanjaro! At 5895m or 19,340 feet, it’s the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest free-standing mountain in the world.

I’m doing this climb in memory of my baby cousin Nicholas, who died this year aged only six months. He suffered from Malignant Migrating Partial Seizures/Epilepsy in Infancy. This is a devastating condition – children suffering from it have a life expectancy of only 2/3 years, they show very little developmental progress, and can suffer up to 50 seizures a day. Treatment is ineffectual, seizures become more and more frequent and the child becomes quadriplegic. As an example, one of Nicholas’s seizures lasted 36 hours. 

The charity I'm supporting is Epilepsy Research UK (http://www.epilepsyresearch.org.uk/). This charity researches the causes, treatment and prevention of this terrible condition, which affects over 450,000 people in the UK alone, and something like 50 million people worldwide. I never knew how complex this condition is, or how many variants of it there are. It is not yet understood why some people are born with a disposition towards epilepsy, how a seizure starts in the first place, or what makes them spread. Current treatments are just not sufficient. Medical research is incredibly expensive, which is why this charity’s work is so important.

So please dig deep and donate anything you can to this worthy cause. Thank you.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.