A TEAM of four friends from Redditch and Bromsgrove are to scale Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in aid of Cancer Research UK.
The quartet are flying out later this month to scale Africa’s highest peak, which stands at 5,895metres high.
And organiser Sam James of Shakespeare Media acknowledges just no one knows how they will cope at that sort of altitude.
“You could be the fittest bloke in the world and it could affect you – they say 50 per cent of climbers make it and 50 per cent fail, you just don’t know until you get there,” said Sam.
However all four have personal experience of the impact of cancer and are determined to raise as much money as possible for the charity.
“It’s all self-funded so people who contribute will know that every single penny will go to Cancer Research UK,” said Sam.
“Last year was really challenging for us due to a close family member being diagnosed with cancer.
“Thankfully he is doing well after undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.
“Unfortunately, my co-director at Shakespeare Media lost her Mum to cancer in late 2019 after a brave battle.
“We want to raise as much as possible to help research and ultimately do our bit to increase survival rates.”
After six days of trekking the team will begin their summit during the early hours battling through ice, snow, and temperatures as low as -20.
The route will see them trek for over 40 hours and cover nearly 70km.
“I’ve been doing seven hours of a week training, getting the closest you can get to climbing by using something called a power mill, which we call the death mill it’s so tough,” said Sam, aged 37 and from Webheath.
The team fly out on the nine day trip on February and people can help them raise as much as possible by visiting https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/team/mt-kilimanjaro-trek.
