Revised/updated: - 18th June
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Can you beleive it's been 5 years since Paul and I did the Haute route. I can't beleive time passes so quickly and more to the point, how quickly we have forgotten those promises we made to our selves, saying never again !
This time we have managed to rope in a number of other un-suspecting pals namely Dave Lewis, Gareth Edmondson, Steve Donald and Iain Cowsill in an attempt to get to the summit of Mont Blanc before the last one of us reaches the dreaded four zero.
Now many people have said to us why on earth do you want to climb Mont Blanc? Why not head off on holiday for a week and just relax and enjoy, and the answer to that question is i'm not entirely sure, but what i do know is that we have set ourselves the challange and if we are going to do it why not try and raise a few quid for CHUF while we are on.
The Chllange: -
The total trip length is 1 week. It consists of aclimitatsation and training for the first 4 days. At 3am in the morning of the 5th day if the weather is suitable we will make our first summit attempt. If the weather is against us we will wait it out at high level and fingers crossed at 3am the following morning the weather will give us a break and we will go for it again. There are 2 huts that you can stay the night at before making a summit attempt. As you can imagine the nearest one get booked up very quickly so we are staying at the futherest away one which means an extra 3 hour walk in the morning. The actual summit attempt will take between 14 and 16 hours before we get back to the refuge and if sucessful we will have climbed to a height of 4805meters.
Interesting fact: - There is 21% Oxygen at sea level. At the top of Mont Blanc that percentage drops to 11%.
Challange Dates: - We are flying out on Monday the 20th June and back (god willing) on Monday the 27th June.
The Charity, CHUF about it and why it's so close to our hearts: -
Poppy Lewis (Dave's yougest daugter) was born with a hole in her heart. If it hadn't been for the experteise and equipment that is available in the Freeman Hospital and ward 23 in particular she wouldn't be with us today. They helped keep her stable for the first year of her life and once she reached the age of 1 peformed open heart surgery to fix the problem. Now nearly 6 years of age and if meeting her for the first time you would never know how fragile things once were. I've included 2 photo's of her on this web page. One taken 5 years ago and a recent one.
Around 300 small babies and children are operated on each year by the children’s heart surgeons at the Freeman Hospital.
Heart problems are one of the most common types of abnormality found in newborn babies. Many of them are tiny infants who up until a few years ago would not have survived. Out of 33,000 babies born in the Northern region each year, around 300 will require surgery and many more will require medical or outpatient treatment in the Children’s Heart Unit (Ward 23).
Not all children are born with heart disease. Viruses can severely weaken the heart and cause it to fail. The Freeman Hospital is one of only 2 hospitals in the UK that perform children’s heart transplants and that use mechanical hearts to keep these children alive until their heart either recovers or can be transplanted. Since 1987 over 250 children have received a transplant.
Because of the special expertise at the Freeman Hospital, children are referred to us from Ireland, Scotland and many hospitals throughout England. On a rare occasion they may even be referred from overseas.
Ward 23 (Children’s Heart Unit) is an eighteen bed ward, taking babies and children of all ages. It is equipped with a six cot nursery and twelve beds for older children. It has a large playroom, a room equipped with computer games for older children and an outside play area, including a mini football pitch and basket ball nets, a lot of which were funded by CHUF.
Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) has been equipped with the most modern medical technical equipment and patient monitoring facilities thanks to CHUF funds. To date, over £1 million has been raised for this facility alone.
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.
So please dig deep and donate now.
Important Note: - All donations made go directly to CHUF.
All costs accociated with the trip are covered by our selves.
