Hi.  Thanks for taking the time to visit my page. This is my story.

My daughter, Rebecca Jane McLoughlin was born in December 2018 at just 23 weeks and 3 days old.  Given her extreme prematurity, she was admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where she lived, as did I and my wife, for the next 7 weeks.

During this time, I learnt a lot about premature birth and how poorly advanced research into preventing it is.  This is a shame, since 1 in 4 parents still lose a child as a result of premature birth or miscarriage.

Rebecca was an extremely active little baby, and the bravest and most resilient family member we have ever known.  In her short life, she taught everyone who met her what courage is, overcoming numerous challenges with the odds of survival being frequently against her.  However, tragically, Rebecca eventually succumbed to complications relating to her respiration, in February 2019. 

As Rebecca's Father, I know I can't bring her back, but I can try to do something that may prevent other babies and parents having to go through the same thing in the future.  That's why I am raising money for Tommy's, who fund research into premature birth, stillbirth and miscarriage.

The reason I am climbing Kilimanjaro rather than doing anything else is that completing the challenge will require some of the same personal traits that Rebecca had in abundance.  These include the need to be active, strong-willed and resilient.  Rebecca was also half British and half African, and considering the fight she put up, summiting Snowdon or Ben Nevis in her memory won't quite cut it.

If you want to sponsor me, then donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity (sorry, they made me say that).

Anyway, one thing I wanted to mention is that the trip will be entirely self-funded, so every penny raised will go to Tommy's.  The trip will also cost very little as I will already be in Tanzania as a result of an ongoing project I am working on, so I won't be wasting money on fool-hardy pursuits that would have meant it made more sense to hand over the funding for the trip to Tommy's rather than to actually do the trip itself.

In the event of not being able to summit the mountain, due to injury, altitude sickness or other events beyond my control, then I will not be giving up and will return until the task is complete (well you want your moneys worth, don't you?)

If you want to join me on the climb, you are most welcome to do so but you'll need to commit to joining me on the fundraising side as the climb is all about raising money for Tommy's.  You'll also need to get yourself to Tanzania in Autumn 2019 and be fit enough to complete the climb, which will reach altitudes of 5,895m above sea level.

Many thanks for your support.