Story
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Update: check out the video diary from the trek here</span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><span style="font-family: &amp;amp; quot;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMl7rtrWpL8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMl7rtrWpL8</a></span></span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">................................................................................................................</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page, I thought this would be the easiest way for most people to donate to this worthy charity!</span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; font-size: 18pt;">First of all, the back story.....</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sometime during November last year I was approached by one of my friends who had the idea of climbing Kilimanjaro, at first I took it as just another of his drunken ramblings and quite happily agreed to it without giving it a seconds thought (this is normally the easiest way to get rid of him). Imagine my surprise when he emailed me a month later with a planned itinerary, price list, details of flights etc asking me when I could have the money together!</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: #333333; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, never one to back down from a challenge, 4 months on and it’s actually happening! In a little over 4 weeks I will be jetting off to Kenya to make the journey to Tanzania and the base of the mountain. There will be 3 of us in our team plus a host of porters, cooks and guides and we will be taking 6 days to try to reach the summit. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: #333333; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">To put things into perspective, of the 15 to 20 thousand people that attempt to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro each year, only a third actually make it with the majority having to turn around at some point during the journey. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">This may very well be the hardest thing I have ever attempted to do and I have spent the last 4 months, if not the last 10 years, training for this mammoth task of climbing to 19340 feet (or 5 Snowdon’s). On the journey I will have to battle through a rainforest, travel across vast heath and moorlands, make my way through a desert and combat a number of glaciers! It is not really the relaxing Easter break I had in mind!</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">We will be attempting this on the 2nd of April and hoping to return on the 14th of April.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">You can read more about Kilimanjaro here </span><a href="http://www.journeys.travel/portal/kilimanjaro/kili_facts.html"><span style="color: #800080; font-size: small;">http://www.journeys.travel/portal/kilimanjaro/kili_facts.html</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; font-size: 16pt;">Now for the charity ...</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am aiming to raise £500 for St Vincents School for the sensory impaired which is based in West Derby, Liverpool. The school works with disabled children of all ages, helping them to achieve their education from foundation to post 16 courses. The school can only cater for 50 pupils at a time but the quality of education is high with the school really making a difference in these children’s lives. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some of the areas that the school specialises in are, visual impairments, communication difficulties, autism, cerebral palsy and hearing impairments. Pupils come from a wide spectrum of ethnic and economic backgrounds and are drawn from many different areas of the North West and Wales. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">You can visit their website here </span><a href="http://www.stvin.com/"><span style="color: #800080; font-size: small;">http://www.stvin.com/</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> for more information on this great cause.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: &amp;amp;quot; color: black;">So please dig deep and donate now, if everybody I knew donated just £2 then this could really make the world of difference to those challenged children! </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span></span></p>
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