LAST month I wrote about the crushing impact of dementia on my family and how my sisters and I planned on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds in memory of our late grandfather Michael Delaney.
You will be delighted to hear that all three of us made the summit following a fierce 5,895-metre climb.
After doubling our original target and raising €4,000 for The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, Rachael, Ruth and I were extra determined to summit the world’s highest freestanding mountain.
Having read and watched numerous documentaries about Kilimanjaro we knew to expect some level of altitude sickness and temperatures of as low as -15 degrees in parts. We also knew we would be camping in the cold for seven nights with shock horror no hair straightener, six-hour hikes most days and a 15-hour hike on summit day.
Aware that not everyone who actually attempts to climb Kilimanjaro makes the summit, we arranged our expedition through Irish Adventure travel company Earth’s Edge who seem to achieve a decent success rate.
We were in a group of 20 Irish people of all ages and were accompanied by two guides and a doctor. Everyone’s motives were different – for some people it was a bucket list dream while for others it was for charity.
For the three of us it was both and our way of helping other families who are experiencing the horrors of Alzheimer’s.
We flew into Tanzania two weeks ago, kicking off our trek on the Machame route a longer, more scenic trail, which would give us that extra bit of time to acclimatise.
Admittedly we were all extremely nervous about embarking on a trip of such a scale.
Not being overly athletic we spent the majority of the year training for our climb – my final two months before flying off were spent in the gym four times a week and embarking on 19k hikes most weekends.
Although it was a gruelling process, it really paid off as we found the first few days of climbing to be extremely doable. The scenery was spectacular and varied along the way as our heavy legs carried us from jungles to desert to snow-capped peaks.
The remainder of our expedition was fairly challenging to say the least and summit day was something none of us will ever forget for the rest of our lives. Logistics and low air pressure meant we began our climb at 12am in the dark, in -15 degrees with nothing but a head torch.
In the final 400 metres pre-summit I kept thinking ‘this is it, we’re finally here and we have to make it with so many people behind us’. I thought about grandad and in a strange way could feel his presence which gave me an extra ounce of energy and pushed me further. By the time we reached the summit we were flat out exhausted but Rachael, Ruth and I posed for photographs in t-shirts from The Alzheimer Society and proudly held a picture of my late grandad and grandmother by the congratulations sign. The views were truly astounding
We arrived home with a great sense of achievement, messages of congratulations and further donations for The Alzheimer Society.
We couldn’t have been more delighted that all of us had such a successful trip and that people who have loved ones who suffer from memory loss will be benefitting from our sky-high efforts. I’m sure granddad would be very proud.