Kilimanjaro Challenge
Photo: World Expeditions
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for teams of friends or colleagues to be challenged by taking part in an exhilarating fundraising event in Tanzania, February 2009.
Your objective: to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, while raising money to fight cancer. Physically exhausting and mentally demanding, UCARE's Kilimanjaro Challenge will test your team to the max.
The story behind the UCARE Kilimanjaro Challenge
(Adapted from a Radio Interview with Phil Mercer of Radio Oxford and Jonathan Acott, Andrew Ward and Dr Andrew Protheroe 5th July 2008)
Q: Where did the idea come from to do this challenge event?
Jonathan: I've had cancer twice now and both times I have been treated by Andy Protheroe who is one of the UCARE founding trustees. In 2004, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer which was treated but then 3 years later I relapsed with a tumour in my chest. After fairly major surgery, I am now in remission again.
Basically I wanted to raise some money to give something back and to prove that you can carry on doing things after you've been ill with cancer. I enjoy doing slightly extreme activities and so I came up with the idea of the UCARE Kilimanjaro Challenge.
Q: Why are you taking part?
Andrew: About 3 years ago I had a rare case of testicular cancer. Complications resulted in loosing my right leg below the knee. People say it's a bit crazy for me to want to climb Kilimanjaro. But I feel healthy now both mentally and physically. People were good to me in my dark days and I would like to give something back.
There's a couple of reasons why I wanted to join in the UCARE Challenge. I want to raise money for the charity but I also want to achieve something personally. I feel that just because I've lost my leg I'm no different from anyone else and so this is the challenge for me!
Q: Why support UCARE?
Dr Protheroe: UCARE is necessary to help raise awareness of cancers such as prostate, testicular, kidney and bladder and to help fund world-class research in order to make advancements and improvement in care. There are approximately 55,000 cases of urological cancer diagnosed each year in the UK. So it's a huge number of cases of cancer and some of these cancers are embarrassing and quite difficult to talk about - particularly the ones that affect men. The more we can do to raise the profile and awareness of these cancers the better.
It's fantastic that Jonathan and Andrew are doing the UCARE Kilimanjaro Challenge - not just to raise money for cancer research but to raise awareness of urological cancers.
Jambo, Jambo Kilimanjaro
Watch this 3 minute video clip to find out about the challenge facing Jonathan and Andrew.
Get involved
If you would like to sponsor Jonathan, Andrew, Michael and the UCARE Challenge Team, please visit their fundraising page.
Contact Michael Heal, UCARE's Fundraising Consultant, for more information or if you would like to join the UCARE Challenge Team.
