My story

Hi all

We returned from Borneo on Saturday 14th April, exhausted, in need of a hot bath, and a little disappointed.

From the moment we arrived at Mount Kinabalu, it became evident that our training had been nowhere near enough. For some strange reason I had been under the impression that the climb would be over three days; in fact it was two! By way of an interesting statistic; climbing Kinabalu from bottom to top and back, is the same distance as climbing Mount Everest one way, hardly something to undertake in one day! (thanks Lucy)

There was much more scrambling over loose rock than we imagined and some of the steps were nearly as tall as Sue! The length of time from each point was much longer than we were told and our water supplies were consequently almost always inadequate.

Day one saw us set out at around 9 o'clock and we did not reach the rest stop at Laban Rata until nearly eight in the evening which meant some of our journey was in the approaching dark.

After almost no sleep we continued on at 3 the following morning in darkness with head torches against the advice of our guide to try to reach the summit.

Surprisingly neither of us appeared to suffer any form of altitude sickness although by this point we were over 3,500 metres above sea level.

Finally, at around 5am we reached at solid granite  rock face at about a 45degree angle where the only hand hold was a rope bolted into the rock. In the darkness we could not see how far it stretched or where it went. Our guide only spoke broken English so it was difficult to get a detailed picture of just what was involved fron here but he made it clear that the rope continued right to the top and the climb only got harder.

After a lengthy discussion, safety prevailed and we had to admit that it just would not be safe to continue, ( pulling yourself up hand over hand is impossible if you can only use one hand)

Another two hours back to the rest stop, then a short break, top up our water bottles and back down the mountain. We reached the bottom at around 2.30

We had been walking for around 23 of the last 29 hours. Not bad going, and at the finish we discovered a warning sign telling people NOT to attempt the climb if they had ANY pre existing medical conditions (some of those mentioned were much less debilitating than Dystonia.)

The Park Ranger was so impressed with Susan that she was awarded with the certificate usually only given to those who reach the summit.

This site will remain open for donations until 4th June, many many thanks for all the support especially from the following people;

In no particular order,

Paul and Jackie, Glenda, Lucy, Fiona, Kylie, Sarah, Christine, Nicola, and Joe the guide who  wasbrilliant.

My gallery 1

My Teams

My company

My charity

The Parkinson's Appeal

The Parkinson's Appeal

Charity Registration No. 263064

The Parkinson's Appeal is a charity, which was set up by our founder Lyn Rothman to raise funds for a Deep Brain Stimulation Team headed up by the world-renowned Professor Marwan Hariz. It is through kind donations that we are able to continue our research to alleviate the soul destroying symptoms of Parkinson's disease and other neurological and movement disorders.

Donations 22

Donation by From an OU Reader on 19/05/07

£5.00

On behalf of OU Readers

Donation by Ou Readers on 17/05/07

£10.00

Donation by On behalf of Trish (OU) on 14/05/07

£20.00

Donation by On behalf of Si and Ti on 14/05/07

£20.00

Donation by From Ann and Richard Tattam on 14/05/07

£85.00

From the readers at the OU

Donation by OU Readers on 14/05/07

£75.00

On behalf of all colleagues at the OU

Donation by OU colleagues on 14/05/07

£282.00

Donation by Friends and Family on 01/05/07

£90.00

Well done - really fantastic!

Donation by Nigel, Beverley, Ruth & Holly on 29/04/07

£10.00

+ £2.82 Gift Aid

Congratulations Sue it was great to be part of this with you. Well done!

Donation by Lucy on 28/04/07

£30.00

+ £8.46 Gift Aid

Read the story on the intranet - well done

Donation by Jo Lambert, CCPD, OU on 20/04/07

£10.00

+ £2.82 Gift Aid

Fantastic achievement. Well done!

Donation by Julie on 19/04/07

£10.00

+ £2.82 Gift Aid

Amazing effort. Well done.

Donation by Christine on 17/04/07

£30.00

+ £8.46 Gift Aid

Sue, you are amazing! Truely inspiring!

Donation by Kylie (from Borneo trip) on 17/04/07

£50.00

+ £14.10 Gift Aid

hope that you had a fantastic trip. Have been thinking of you very much

Donation by Hannah on 10/04/07

£20.00

+ £5.64 Gift Aid

All the best, take care.

Donation by Susan Ho on 29/03/07

£10.00

+ £2.82 Gift Aid

Good Luck and every success

Donation by A.J.Stacey on 27/03/07

£10.00

+ £2.82 Gift Aid

Mount Kinabalu is so beautiful; keep your eyes open for pitcher plants and orchids! Good luck

Donation by Anna on 07/02/07

£20.00

+ £5.64 Gift Aid

All the best

Donation by Andrew on 19/01/07

£10.00

+ £2.82 Gift Aid

Thanks for looking after Liz in India!

Donation by Ken Sayle on 13/01/07

£25.00

+ £7.05 Gift Aid

Have happy memories of India

Donation by Liz Hawkes on 13/01/07

£25.00

+ £7.05 Gift Aid

Good Luck with the challenge

Donation by Martin Westall on 24/11/06

£20.00

+ £5.64 Gift Aid

Donation summary

  • * Online donations£867.00
  • Offline donations£0.00
  • Text donations£0.00
  • Total raised£867.00
  • Gift Aid£78.97

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