Chattisham is a small village in Suffolk, lying at 55 metres (180ft) above sea level. Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania rises 5895 m (19,341ft). At the end of March 2016, Louise & Tom Lidstone and Emma & Mark Walters from Chattisham will be attempting to reach the top of this magnificent mountain, the highest point on the African continent.

Their inspiration to do this is a brave little 8-year old girl called Xanthe Carter, who attends both the local village school and a school in Ipswich for children with special needs. This is because at 9 months of age Xanthe contracted pneumococcal meningitis, which caused her to suffer a massive stroke and left her on a life support machine for 10 days and in hospital for a further 12 weeks, recovering and stabilising.  Xanthe is now hemiplegic and severely epileptic; she can’t speak - but she has the most beautifully expressive face and eyes.

She is learning basic motor neuro skills such as walking and communicating by using Makaton (sign language), and an Ipad App especially developed for children like her; but to maintain progress in this she needs as much 1:1 teaching and therapy as possible. And that requires funding.

If you want to understand why this little girl inspires the Walters and the Lidstones, please spend a few minutes watching this video, made in 2014 for another fundraising event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTmGXDQEGm0

With an average age closer to 50 than 40, and not accustomed to altitude, we will undoubtedly find it a struggle at times to tackle this most impressive of mountains. Passing through 5 climate zones and spending 6 nights in tents, we will ask ourselves why we’re doing this. But the answer is easy. If we find this a struggle, that is nothing compared with Xanthe’s daily struggle to master basic skills that we all take for granted.

And our struggle will be behind us in a little over a week, whether we succeed or fail. For Xanthe’s courageous and loving parents, Jessie and Hugo, juggling Xanthe’s needs with those of her brothers, Milo and Otto, and raising funds to continue Xanthe’s therapy are relentless, ongoing battles. They cannot afford to fail, and we will do our best not to fail them.

Please consider supporting us in this venture by donating whatever you can. We are funding our trip entirely, so please don’t be put off by the thought that your money would be used for that purpose. It won’t. Your generosity will find its way to assisting Xanthe in achieving greatness.

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Thank you very very much
Emma, Mark, Louise & Tom