Charity climber urges others to follow in his footsteps

A SOUTHSIDE local has spoken of the amazing experience he had last year when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to help raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society.

Michael O’Hara from Glenageary has spoken of his trip of a lifetime to the summit of Kilamanajaro last year as part of the Irish Cancer Society’s Trek4Life appeal in an attempt to persuade others to take part in the charity’s appeal for 2013.

The Irish Cancer Society recently launched their annual Trek4Life appeal, and is asking other Southsiders to take part in their exciting new treks.

Treks this year include two on the Camino de Santiago route in Northern Spain (June 22 to 29 and October 5 to 12) and one trek up Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (October 17 to 27).

The first of this year’s treks is the Camino, specifically the Santiago de Compostela route. This route became well-known around the 9th century when the remains of St James the Apostle were buried there.

At the turn of the second millennium it became one of the most popular pilgrimage sites, and today it is popular with young and old who walk anything from days to weeks on the Camino trail.

The final 100km of the route goes through Galicia, Northwest Spain and it’s only people who journey through this particular stage that can be awarded a certificate as a pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago.

The second of this year’s treks is to Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa’s highest point, the world’s highest free-standing mountain and one of the world’s largest volcanoes. It’s a magnet for adventurers the world over.

This challenging trek will take participants along the beautiful Machame route that approaches Kilimanjaro from the south, through dense tropical rain forest and all the way up to the mighty snow-capped Uhuru Peak standing at 5,896m above sea level, with some of the most exquisite views across Africa.

Michael, who took part in Trek4Life last year, said his trek up Kilimanjaro in October last year with his brother Eamonn and 17 other volunteers was the trip of a lifetime.

“The mountain itself is fantastic as you literally experience different climates as you climb,

? he said.

“There are the sandy plains of Kilimanjaro valley, the coffee plantations and jungle at the start of the trek, then onto the Alpine like landscape and then the glaciers.

“We started our summit climb at 1.30am in a clear sky that had one million stars in it.

“We climbed steadily for four to five hours until we saw the sun rise on the horizon and then we noticed an amazing site; we were probably around 5,700 metres high and when we looked down over the valley with the sun just starting to light up the sky. We could actually see the curvature of the planet! We really felt we were achieving something amazing.

“After we reached the summit, the sense of achievement was fantastic! After many high fives and numerous photo-shoots, we made our descent back down to camp – tired but elated at the same time. A fantastic trip and one I would recommend to everyone.

?

Mark Mellett, Head of Fundraising with the Irish Cancer Society said:

“Taking on a trek for the Irish Cancer Society is a huge personal challenge and an extremely rewarding one.

“Many of the people who take part in our Trek4Life programme want to do something different to fight back against cancer – they chose to do a trek to have a unique experience, while at the same time raising money for a cause they hold dear.

“The money raised from our Trek4Life programme funds cancer research projects. We hope that the research we are funding today will lead to less people getting cancer and those that do have the best outcome possible.

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The Irish Cancer Society is the largest voluntary body funding cancer research in Ireland. Since 1963 it has contributed more than

?¬26 million to cancer research.

Over the past 30 years, research funded by the society has led to major advances in cancer research and more than 650 important research findings have been discovered.

Currently, the society is supporting 13 researchers as they investigate a number of potentially important discoveries in all types of cancer.

For further information on Trek4Life or to register for a trek call 1850-606060, visit www.cancer.ie or email [email protected].