6 Days to go!

So, it's Sunday evening and I'm sat in my warm home relaxing in front on the TV (and making sure all my work is up to date before I'm out of contact for 6 days!), I'm 90% packed and ready to go. This time in 6 days I will be about to bed down in a tent for my first night on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. I can't wait now!

A number of people have asked who I'm travelling with and who am I raising money for -so here you go.....

The whole reason for this trips stems from my travels with Georgina (George) who I met many years ago whilst doing my first adventure for charity - trekking in Patagonia for Cancer Research UK. An awesome trip and I'm still in touch with many of those we travelled with. George and I then followed this trip a few years later with a trek to Nepal, where we climbed a 4000m peak (called Pike Peak - pronounced Peekay) and watched the sun rise over Mt Everest. It was an absolute dream come true - and I sobbed like a girl when we reached the top! Since then, we've spoken many times about Kilimanjaro, and after a superb trip to the Lakes in March last year - we decided it was enough of the talking, it was time to get walking!!

George is travelling with the man in her life, Paul. We've done a few training walks together and he clearly already has the patience of a saint as in our little gang - he's the only bloke! Mad (Irish) Mary is coming too - and we'll be sharing a tent - and a few other things too I'm sure (i.e. drugs - diamox to be precise, wet wipes, tears, sleepless nights etc!). Mary and I met when she worked for me over in Ireland - in fact we didn't meet for 6 months - but our fortnightly chats (i.e. very important operational conference calls) cemented a strong friendship. And there is Joyce - who also works for the same company and over a random meeting one day we discussed Africa, and the rest is history! Joyce has subsequently spent many months in Africa between contracts working with Lions, Cheetah's, Elephants etc - so the opportunity to climb Kilimanjaro was just too much to resist! So, there is 5 of us that know each other and apparently 14 people on the trek in total. I'm sure I'll have much more to tell you about our fellow travellers after the trip.

I am raising money for 3 different charities.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=cathyonkili

There are two charities via this link - Cancer Research UK and the Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre in Oxford. Both are excellent causes and you can read more about them and why they are important to me on the pages.

http://www.justgiving.com/CathyonKili

There is a single charity called the Felix Fund on this link. This is the UK Bomb Disposal charity and again there is further information on why I am raising funds for them on the link.

I'm aiming to raise £500 for each of these charities - and if I get anywhere close to that, it will be a brilliant result. I want to climb Kilimanjaro for myself and my family - and if I can raise some funds for these charities along the way - I will be delighted.