23rd March - Got my first company sponsor money today!  Many thanks to Piper Security Holdings Ltd in Solihull for their generous donation of £100 and also they have promised another £100 when I complete the trek.  Thank you!

When I was fundraising for the previous treks, I had the support of my local pub, the Olton Tavern.  I was somewhat worried this time as the pub was going through a bit of a bad time and people were not using it.  Luckily there is now a new manager and manageress, Barry & Catherine and they are really behind me with the fundraising.  We have already had an Easter raffle and raised £100 and there will be a Curryaoke on Saturday 27th May and Barry, who is a qualified chef, is cooking the curry!  The karaoke is being done by U Can Karaoke - our old friends Phil & NIgel who have done karaokes for me before. I am sure there will be other events happening at the pub in the coming months.

Well the curry-oake was brilliant!  I even sang 3 songs and no-one begged me to stop! A fantastic £562 was raised from the curry, raffle, auction and naming the monkey - which was Banana and went to a very happy 6yr old called Cloe. I hope to be doing another charity night at the pub later in the year. 

25th August - been quiet for a while but money has still been coming in.  Thank you to the 2 people who have given £20 each direct to my head office.  The training has been slow but I will be stepping it up now.  Next weekend I am off to Snowdon for a training weekend and briefing.  Looking forward to meeting some of the people who will be joining me in this mad challenge.  Each training walk I have been on so far as left me in some discomfort the next few days!  It will get easier the more I do.  Got myself a trainer who is taking me on a walk in December to Kinder in Derbyshire - he says if I can do Kinder in December, I can do Kili no problem and he is an expert! I am sorting out another do at the Olton Tavern hopefully for Halloween weekend.  It will be a live band (who are incredible!) fancy dress and some of the gprgeous lads associated with the pub keep nagging me to arrange an auction with them as the sale items!  watch this space!

9th Oct - the do at the Tavern has been postponed as the pub is shutting for a re-furb before Christmas.  Hopefully I will be arranging it for the re-opening around 9th December so watch this space. 

Well I did Scafel Pike last weekend with my wonderful friend Ca (who I met on the Sahara trek) It was bloody hard!  Took us 7 hrs and we were very lucky not to have got lost!  Weather was awful and the cloud kept obscuring our view.  Got soaked but felt chuffed we did it.  Doing Ben Nevis on 21st Oct with some of the others taking part in this trek.  Really think we need to hire a guide after my experience with Scafel - it was scary!  Read that 12 people a year die doing Ben Nevis so not taking any chances! Will keep you updated.

Well 6 of us did Ben Nevis at the beginning of October. It was so warm!  Although it did go very cold at the top and the clouds came down and we could not see any of the view.  It was spectacular going up though.  I had real problems coming down - my legs just gave out about half way down.  I made it though and finished it in the dark.  After completing Scafel, I could not understand why I had a problem and I think it was the fact that I had no breakfast and ran out of water due to the heat.  I will never walk again without having a big breakfast!  I have learned my lesson.  There will be no problem at Kili as we will be bullied into eating. One of the signs of altitude sickness is loss of appetite.

I raised £1888.64 from the Tesco and Morrisons collections.  It was hard with the Morrisons as it was all week and I went every day after work and then all day on the Saturday and Sunday.  Still it is a good way to raise money although very uncomfortable.

21st Dec - once Christmas is over the weeks will fly by and it will be February before I know it!  Been very naughty and have not done any training for a few weeks - just been too busy at work and have left each day totally drained.  Am having the first 2 week holiday I have had in 2 years over Christmas and New Year, then I will be training every day - walking to work etc.  Just hope they don't shout at me when I am late each morning!  Running up and down the stairs at work will be great training as well - we have 6 floors.

Roll on 2007!

12th Jan only 5 weeks to go!  Weather is playing havoc with the training - I get so bored in the gym.  My intention is to go to the Malverns twice a week - midweek and each Sunday but have not managed that this week because of this awful wind and rain.  Not as bad as when we tried to do Snowdon but still scary if you tried to go hillwalking on your own!  Hopefully I will be organising a charity night at my local pub the Olton Tavern when I get back - too quiet now after Christmas - no-one has any money.  Have also written to some more companies and my husband will be passing on a copy of my 'begging' letter to all his contacts.  Hopefully I will get to that magic £10K! That will be £25K in 5 years.  can't awit to see what Macmillan come up with for 2009 when I will be 50.  What can be tougher than Kilimanjaro?

5th Feb - not long now!  Getting very nervous especially when I found out that only 13 out of 31 made it on our January trip.  Apparently there were a lot of bad stomachs!  I had a great walk yesterday in the Malverns, the weather was fantastic but not much use for preparation for the snow on Kili!  Going again this Wednesday and then meeting some of the others on Sunday to walk Ladybower in the Peaks - hopefully there may be a bit of snow.