Thanks for visiting my page!

A couple of months back I decided I needed a physical and mental challenge... so over a spag bol with Sue n Dave and sacking off various holiday ideas, I decided I was going to fly to Tanzania and climb Mount Kilimanjaro to 20,000ft - the highest mountain in Africa, with a bunch of strangers!

I will be spending 7 nights camping up the mountain, passing through five major ecological zones - rain forest, heath, alpine desert, moorland and finally arctic glaciers- to the summit.

I will start at around 20/25^oC which plummets to -29^oC on the summit- which you set off at midnight with head torches to reach the top at sunrise...(6 hours up, and straight away another 8 hours to get part way back down!)

Altitude sickness is pretty much the sole reason people don't get to the  top- irrelevant of age, size and fitness. It either gets you and you are forced by the doctor to go back down before its serious- or its about manageable. About a third don't make it to the top and you can get evacuated down on these homemade little stretchers by the locals ... Dad is reading through helicopter rescue on my insurance as I write!

The last couple of charity runs I've organised have been for MIND- The Mental Health Charity, and I've decided to do this for them also.

I have known quite a lot of people or their loved ones to suffer with mental illness which is so sad for everybody involved. If you don't have your mental health- this is EQUALLY as bad as not having physical health.

It isn't a choice to snap out of depression or anxiety, like it isn't a choice when you have cancer. Just because you can't see it- doesn't mean its not excruciatingly real.

The biggest killer in young men - is suicide. This is an actual and god awful fact that some people feel that they have no other option than to take this heartbreaking decision. 

Men start off as children, with society often times telling them not to cry and be a big boy, or man up and brush it off, and sometimes struggle to open up and ask for help. MIND provide an outlet of amazing services- promote understanding, and raise awareness.

Please donate, however small, so when I'm at the top in my balaclava like a little icicle, I can stand there elated, knowing 'we', collectively have made a little difference to even one human being. 

If you aren't helping others in life and trying to make a difference in some way- I really do not see the point.

https://www.mind.org.uk/

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this,

Vanessa xxx