Hello

Thank you for visiting my page. As you must now know if you are reading this, I have utterly lost my mind and have willingly volunteered to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in , this September.  It will take a couple of days trekking up to 6 hours a day over ever-changing terrain, culminating in a midnight ascent to the peak of Kili and up to 16 hours trekking there and back on the final day. Apart from the obvious issues (my fitness level being the main one!) this will be a huge challenge for me in many respects:

I have never slept in a tent before - let alone in one half way up a mountain.
I generally don’t walk - I drive, especially uphill.
I found this winter unbearable, and it will be about minus 10 degrees at the top of the mountain.
I have permanently cold hands and feet - even in summer.
I don’t like not having a shower and washing my hair everyday (am slightly ocd about it).  I won’t be able to have a shower for 6 days while climbing the mountain. 

The toilet situation (there isn't one) – need I say more?

So you may ask what on earth has convinced me to do this – well it’s to raise money for an amazing charity set up by my friend Jason when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the young age of 33.  Jason found that there wasn’t really much support for people in their 20’s and 30’s dealing with cancer, so he set up "The No Surrender Charitable Trust", an online global social network and charity to fund-raise for the Royal Marsden. A Fellowship at UCH in Jason’s name has also been set up to research cures for pancreatic cancer. Please see www.no-surrender.org for more info.

In one of Jason's emails he wrote me when he was ill he said "... what I am trying to say is go out there, and enjoy life to the max, and keep smiling" - and I think of those words a lot. Jason lost his brave fight for life and I am doing this for him.

Anything you can give would be amazing.  Donating through Just Giving is totally secure and your details are safe.

Thank you for your support.

Mandyx

PS And a big thank you to Paul and Tom who are doing an amazing job of getting me fit to climb up 6000 metres of mountain – the top of Kili is higher than Everest base camp(!) - www.ellisstockwell.co.uk