Thank you for visiting my Just giving page, This is my first ever just giving page... so why have I chosen to set this up?

Some time go I agreed to climb Kilimanjaro, partly for the challenge / experience and partly to understand what it is like to live and operate with a significant restriction on the oxygen you can take in... ( I know this last one is a very strange reason to climb a mountain).

So why would I want to understand what it is like to operate without oxygen... well until my Father Passed away in August he was suffering from COPD (Chronic obstructive Pulmonary Disease). This Is a degenerative disease that effects a large proportion of the population. COPD causes a significant loss in the body's ability to take on oxygen through the lungs. Over those two years that my father suffered this disease, it meant his quality of life diminished on even the most basic things we take for granted, like struggling to breath whilst sitting in a chair or walking more than 10ft and having to rest for 5 minutes.  

Going up Kilimanjaro represents a milestone event for me in that I will be tackling the largest standalone mountain in the world and the highest point in the African continent. The journey up Kibo (as it is locally known) for me will be partly emotional and partly physical (climbing from 2800m to 5895m (approx. 19,341ft) spending 6 days without a toilet, no showers, 7 other smelly friends, about 40% of the oxygen that we normally breath and a 30% chance that Altitude sickness will mean I cannot reach the top) ... should be fun ?

I am leaving on the 7^th October and before then I would like to raise money for a charity that helped to support my father through his final weeks, Keech Hospice Care. Keech supports adults and children in Bedfordshire. Their hospice care has been delivered since 1986 to adults and children in a variety of settings, including multiple facility in Bedfordshire, the family home, hospital and at school.

Keech relies on Donations and support for their funding and anything you can donate not only goes to a very worthy cause but also inspires me to reach the summit. Hopefully you will agree that this is a worth charity and for all of you that have read this far I would like to say thank you for your time and thank you for any donations that you choose to give.  

Many thanks,
Zoli