Hi Everyone

I’m writing as I have been lucky enough to have been
accepted to take on a huge challenge on behalf of Alder Hey Children’s hospital in October 2018, climbing one of the most challenging terrains in Africa,Kilimanjaro! Actually I’m going to need more than luck, I’m going to need YOU and your family, all your friends and everyone else you know to help support me and in turn Alder Hey Children’s hospital to raise as much money as possible to fund a new Echo machine.

Alder Hey is an amazing hospital caring for over 270,000
poorly children and their families every year offering life-saving treatment
for conditions ranging from cancer, heart, brain and spine. As well as this,
the hospital leads research into children’s medicines, infection, inflammation and oncology, the benefit of which impacts children not only in the UK but also worldwide.

They do all this with an extremely tiny marketing budget and so they rely heavily on the generosity of the public and corporate world to fund the amazing work they do.

As you may know, I have three small children of my own, and
I recently visited Alder Hey and saw firsthand the heartache that parents of sick children have to face and deal with on a daily basis, which has a huge knock on effect to their extended family, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even their little friends at nursery and school and it makes me realise just how lucky I am to have three healthy children.

On my Just giving page is a link to a short video to one of
the patients I met……..Theo, a young cardiac patient who has suffered several cardiac arrests and who’s life has been saved a number of times by Alder Hey with the help of an Echo machine.

An Echo machine is a cutting edge ultrasound machine that
allows clinicians to obtain and store multiple images and videos of a patient’s heart non invasively, which gives cardiac surgeons the very best technology to assist in surgery and recovery and makes treatment much more comfortable for the young patients.

It would be great if more patients like Theo could benefit
from the use of this vital piece of equipment and to this end I would greatly appreciate your extra support by sharing my Just giving page with as many people as possible via email and all forms of social media.

A new Echo machine costs £100,000 – your support will help me to raise funds to buy a new one and to save and improve the lives of Children like Theo.

Thank you. Lisa xxx

The Trek

Mt Kilmanjaro is the highest freestanding mountain in the world and also the highest mountain on the African continent standing at 5,896m. This is a tough trek which follows the beautiful Machama route, approaching Kilmanjaro from the south. The route has been designed to allow
gradual acclimatisation to the altitude, with an extra day included than the more traditional Machame route, this gives us the best chance of summitsuccess. Our trek takes us through dense tropical rainforest, moorland and scree until we reach Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa!

We are trekking for seven consecutive days in high altitude, covering a total distance of more than 87km! The days are long and we will be
tackling some significant climbs across varied terrain, which at times will be rocky and testing underfoot. The temperature ranges from hot to bitterly cold on Mt Kilmanjaro. The jouney from the gate to the peak is like travelling from the equator to Antartica in a matter of days. At the beginning of the climb the average temperature is around 21 to 27 degrees Celsius. At the summit, the night time temperature can range between -18 to -26 degrees!               

We will be camping in two man tents for seven nights,
campsite facilities are very basic and in some places non-existent. The
campsites have limited access to water so bowls of water are used for washing
rather than running water so wet wipes are a necessity!!

Wish me luck!!!!!!

ECHO MACHINE

An Echo machine is a cutting edge Ultrasound machine that
comes with specific frequency transducers and software that allows clinicians to obtain and store multiple images and videos of a patient’s heart none invasively.

Patients experience very little or no discomfort through a
routine Cardiac Echo procedure.

Echo machines are most frequently used in Cardiology
Outpatients, Critical Care, Theatres and the Cardiac Ward.

The images gained using an ECHO machine allow clinicians to
see blood flow to and from the heart, the structure of the heart and the
internal workings/timings of the patient’s heart.

It is also used to create a report of the patient’s condition which is sent into a database and inserted into the patient’s electronic record.

The images obtained by an Echo machine are often used to
plan Cardiac Surgery if necessary.

Whilst a cardiac Echo machine is often used for non-invasive
procedures it can also be used to perform other studies such as Transesophageal Echocardiography and Stress Echocardiography.

Transesophageal Echocardiography is an invasion procedure where a probe is inserted down a patient’s oesophagus and gives the clinician a more in depth view of the heart and from different angles allowing them to diagnose a patient condition.

Stress Echocardiography is when the Echo machine is used in
conjunction with exercise (often a treadmill or exercise bike) and allows the clinicians to observe the working and timings of the heart under the stress of exercise.

Patients like little Theo Fry and his family benefit from
the use of an Echo machine, making his treatment much more comfortable and giving his Cardiac surgeon and team the very best technology to assist with his surgery and recovery.