Pete and Charlotte - 5,895 m to climb!........... We did it!

Charlotte Austin is raising money for Katharine House Hospice - Banbury
“Charlotte Austin's fundraising”

on 31 July 2011

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Katharine House provides specialist palliative care for adults with life-limiting conditions across North Oxfordshire and South Northamptonshire. We provide inpatient services, specialist nurses out in the community, a Living Well programme, a specialist hospital team and bereavement support.

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Some of you may have just found out, others may have known for a while. Following Charlottes MRI, we have the confirmation that her stress fracture has healed properly and are now set to climb Kilimanjaro, leaving the UK on 18 September.

 

We will be supporting Katharine House Hospice, a charity local to Charlotte founded by Neil and Heather Gadsby, following the tragic death of their daughter, Katharine Gadsby, who died in 1984 aged 20 of cancer.

 

The Hospice and their staff provide care and respite for patients and their families in the area. As such they rely heavily on the generosity of individuals and the local community to raise the £2.4 million (£6,500 per day) needed this year to care for over 800 patients.

 

All services to patients and their families are free of charge and include;

1) A 10-bed Inpatient Unit - £512 per patient, per day, with an average stay just under 14 days

 

2) A 12-place Day Hospice, recently rebuilt - £224 per patient, per day

 

3) Transport for Day Patients - £75 per day

 

4) A team of eight Clinical Nurse Specialists (Macmillan Nurses)

 

5) A Support Team at the Horton General Hospital 

 

6) A Bereavement Team supporting patients’ families

 

 

 

This is a very special place and has touched the lives of so many, helping patients and their family and friends through a difficult period in their lives.

 

 Your donation will be directly supporting Katharine House. We are both paying for trip and all associated costs personally to ensure that the Hospice receives the maximum donation.

 

 

The adventure and challenge of Kilimanjaro, a few comments…

 

 

1) We will trek over 50 miles, going from a few thousand feet to over 19 thousand feet. Temperatures will range from tropical jungle heat at the base to minus 20ºC at the summit.

 

 

2) Charlotte WILL be drinking 3 – 4 litres of water (maybe diluted with Ribena!) per day!

 

3) “It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There was no way I was ever doing this again. Wheezing like an asthmatic pensioner after a crack binge, my feet swam out of focus as my hypnotic head was struggling to get a grip of the situation” Alex Messenger, feature in Summit60, Winter 2010

 

Some of the more unorthodox ways to tackle Kilimanjaro…..

1) Run – Bruno Brunod from Italy, in 2001, completing the ascent in 5 hours 36 minutes!

2) Cycling – the Crane cousins from the UK survived on Mars bars strapped to their handlebars

3) Motorbike – an anonymous Spaniard

4) 8ft Rhinoceros costume – in 1994 the author of Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy

 

For on the way back down………Skiing, snowboarding, hand gliding! 

 

A huge thank you for your support and for making a difference to this local hospice.

 

Pete and Charlotte

 

Further information about the hospice can be found on their website www.khh.org.uk 

 

****************THANK YOU FOR NAVIGATING TO OUR PAGE***************
***************************PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY**************************

 

 

 

Donation summary

Total
£2,144.21
+ £293.78 Gift Aid
Online
£1,335.11
Offline
£809.10

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