Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page!

I have talked about doing this climb on and off over the years and Donna (my wife) and I decided that this would be the year to finally take on this once in a lifetime challenge and adventure together!

Thank-you so much for helping us to help Aberlour Child Care Trust to make a real difference! 

My mother died when I was only 18 and I was left very much on my own with no real clue about bills or running a home or even cooking a meal (they didn’t teach boys that kind of thing back then!) It was a very steep learning curve!

I was fortunate enough to have supportive adults around me - the boss I was an apprentice for and my best friend’s Mum in particular - who looked out for me and helped me with everything. But many youngsters are not so lucky, and deal with all sorts of unbelievably tough situations at a much younger age.

Aberlour is that helping hand giving support, direction and encouragement to youngsters all over Scotland. They tailor their services to help each child, young person and family achieve their own personal goals. They help families and children in care and young people living with a disability, giving families support and access to respite and services to help them cope day to day and to help the young people to achieve everything they can. They help children growing up in and leaving care, and dealing with the impact of drugs and alcohol – helping transform lives for the better.

(We are raising money for 2 charities so please visit 'Donna's Kilimanjaro Climb' page too and help us both reach our targets.)

Mount Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain on the African continent and the highest free-standing mountain in the world, an impressive 5895m above sea level. Although we are climbing Kilimanjaro, the mountain within the National Park, there are actually three volcanoes that form Kilimanjaro. It is Uhuru Peak on the volcano of Kibo that marks the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and the highest point in Africa.

We are trekking the Lemosho route, starting in the rainforest and reaching the summit at dawn 7 days later (hopefully!) Almost every kind of ecological system is found on the mountain: cultivated land, rain forest, heath, moorland, alpine desert and an arctic summit. We’ll go from hot & humid at the start to well below freezing in the final days – this will be a real challenge!

Altitude sickness is very likely, but the medic on our trip will be keeping a close eye on everyone to make sure our symptoms aren’t too serious and we don’t push ourselves further than is safe.

If you’d like to find out more about my charity please visit www.aberlour.org.uk. 

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