Choosing a charity

Watching the London Marathon this morning, with several good friends running in it, is inspiring me yet again. But it also brings up that nagging thought that I need to do something about sponsorship. Now I HATE the idea of asking people money for anything, even sponsorship, but it has to be done. One of the main reasons I'm climbing Kili in the first place is to raise money for a charity close to my heart and in some way to give something back to society. It's the main reason I've declined to do many charity events in the past - I'd love to do them but I hate the idea of raising money. Sometimes I just do them and donate the money myself. I've been thinking about doing the Spire-to-Spire walk in September for the Classic FM charity MusicMakers. It would be good training, it's interesting (and appeals since I spent a lot of my childhood singing in Salisbury Cathedral, and have also sung in Winchester Cathedral a few times). But I don't want to ruin my chances of getting sponsorship for Kili by also asking people for money for that! And one of the conditions of doing it is that you have to raise a certain amount of money.

One of the things that's been inspiring me the most recently is the efforts of Exodus' very own Paul Goldstein, who's been lugging a 9 foot high tiger not only up Kili, but also in two marathons. Certainly one way to get people's attention! It looks as if the tiger had a nice sleep on the flight too.

 Anyway, back to the point. The main reason I'm climbing Kili is because I want to give something back to some of the people who've helped me and my family over the years. The trouble is, there are so many, and it's taken a lot of thought to decide which charity I want to raise money for. The shortlist came down to the following (in no particular order):
- Diabetes UK. I've been a life member since 1980, and back then, they were the only contact I had with anything diabetes-related. I remember reading their newsppaper (before it became a magazine) avidly under the bedclothes at night when I was supposed to be asleep. It made me realise that I wasn't alone with this disease. Even though my dad had had diabetes most of his life (and all of mine), it wasn't something we talked about in the family.
- JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). I only discovered this charity much later, when a friend told me about them. Contrary to Diabetes UK, which caters very much for the masses, and whose magazine and advice are largely written in words of one syllable, JDRF focuses primarily on research, and funds many great research programmes, while keeping those who are interested up to date with this, rather than Diabetes UK's focus on things like recipes and easy guides.
- Insulin Pumpers. Along with one of my closest friends, John Neale (who sadly died of brain cancer a few years ago), I set up the UK branch of the US charity Insulin Pumpers around 15 years ago, and still run the website, mailing list and everything else on the UK side. Getting an insulin pump (thanks to John) was the best thing I ever did, and it undoubtedly saved me from going totally blind and losing my kidneys. Insulin Pumpers is a fantastic source of support and advice about pumps, and I owe it a lot.
- RNIB. When I lost most of my sight 15 years ago, RNIB were another godsend, providing so much help, information and support.
- Guide Dogs for the Blind. When I was told that I would lose all my sight, I investigated the possibility of a guide dog, and even went through the assessment programme. Although I'm not really a dog lover (I'd much rather have a guide cat!) I have friends with guide dogs and I can see how much they can transform a blind person's life. It turned out that for various reasons, a guide dog wasn't for me right now, but it may be something I'll reconsider in the future.
- Limbless Association. I hope I'll never need their help, but it's quite possible I will one day. More importantly, however, this brings me to one of the other main reasons for climbing Kili. In the last 18 months my father, a type 1 diabetic for nearly 60 years, lost both his legs as a result of diabetes complications, and may face further amputation. He has always taught me by example that you shouldn't let diabetes get in the way of doing whatever you want to do. He may not have climbed Kili, but he's done plenty of amazing things and travelled all over the world, mostly at a time when diabetes management was far more rudimentary than it is now. His courage and determination to carry on as normal a life as possible after double amputation is absolutely inspirational. Another very good friend (and former dance partner) also lost a leg to cancer a few years ago, and similarly, his determination and courage inspired me greatly at the time when I had just lost a lot of my sight and was struggling to come to terms with it. Apparently we were mutual sources of inspiration to each other in this respect.

So there we go. So many charities, but I don't think it's fair to support more than one. So I'm going for the charity that for me somehow encompasses everything. The more research we do into the causes, preventions and cures for diabetes, the less we'll have to worry about blindness and amputations. So I shall be raising money for the JDRF. Not just because their mascot is Pingu.

I think I'm addicted to mountains

What a fabulous place the Sierra de Aitana is! I loved every minute of the trekking holiday - fantastic vistas, great company and an amazing leader who I just couldn't fault on any level. His passion for the area and for mountains really rubbed off on me too.  My main aim was to use the trip as training for Kili, but I ended up enjoying it far too much.


Things I learnt about trekking in the mountains:
- I really need some lighter boots (and socks) for walking when it's hot.
- Vaseline smeared on your feet before a long day of walking really helps avoid blisters. As do two pairs of socks. Many people suffered, I did not.
- Take plenty of zinc oxide tape and apply it to any "hot spots" on your feet long before blisters appear.
- My calf muscles were agony by the last couple of days of walking. I need to seriously strengthen them. Massaging and stretching them at night and in the morning is really important too.
- However, avoid dogs when stretching (see photo).
- I learnt a better way to use my walking poles (wearing the straps differently around my hands). Worked very well and saved my shoulders, once I got used to it.
- Prevention is better than cure for dehydration. I got it right this time. Finally.
- Mess around with insulin and carbs as little as possible. 50% basal rate all day while actually walking worked very well (took me a few days to figure that out). Take normal insulin for breakfast but then turn pump right down to 50% immediately. For long periods of stiff climbing, have some ready glucose to hand. 50% bolus for lunch also works very well. Keeping it simple really helps. Overnight basal is more trial and error - try 75% basal and drop further as necessary.
- My fitness was actually pretty good although I'm slow up hills. But 8 hours of walking a day was no problem, I could have kept going for quite a few more hours. Need to practise walking up hills faster though.
- Keeping an SPF lip balm easily accessible is crucial. SPF 30 suncream for the face also crucial.

Now looking at booking another cheeky holiday in summer in the mountains - possibly Mt Toubkal to get some more experience of altitude. http://www.exodus.co.uk/holidays/tmm/overview

Or maybe Mt Blanc....OK, I really am addicted.

It's not quite Kili...

but it's been 3 months since I went on a walking holiday, so I reckon it's about time for another one. All in the name of training, obviously, nothing to do with having fun. So I'm off to the Sierra de Aitana (don't worry, no one I've met so far has ever heard of it either, not even Spanish people) for a week's meandering among the Spanish peaks.

Puig Campana (in the picture) is one of the 5 peaks I'll be climbing. It looks a little scary from here, though it's only 1406 metres. So we'll be doing that before breakfast as a warmup then.

 Shame I haven't got any new equipment to try out, as this would be a good opportunity. But the 8 hour days will be a good test of my current stamina. The final day's climb on Kili is something like 18 hours, so I need to get in some preparation. I've currently been doing only 5-6 hour walks in the Peaks (given the train service and the short winter days), but then again, when there's only 1 or 2 of us, we barely stop for lunch, let alone a break. With a group of 10 or so, the breaks are usually substantially more as you wait for people to catch up.

I'd better get packing. Sod's law, my flight is at 6.30am on Sunday morning, but because the clocks go forward, it's really only 5.30am. I only ever get up this early when sport or adventure are involved! I dread to think what getting up and starting the final ascent of Kili at midnight in the freezing cold and pitch dark is going to be like though. Much mental strength will be needed!

Imagine an arthritic 90-year-old walking backwards, and you're going too fast.

That's the advice given by Jon Garside, training officer of the British Mountaineering Council, who has led numerous groups up Kilimanjaro. Sounds like a barrel of laughs, especially when you realise that the ascent will be in pitch darkness, snow, and freezing temperatures down to about -30 degrees C. After my experience on the Inca Trail climbing Dead Woman's Pass with a stomach bug, nauseous, severely dehydrated and combatting the effects of altitude, I know what it's like to climb at a rate of 5-10 seconds per step, freezing cold, soaking wet, gasping for breath, and trying to find the will to make the next step. It wasn't fun. Having already lost consciousness a few dozen yards from the top, and with the cold and rain, I felt no satisfaction in reaching the top (I still had a couple of hours' descent ahead of me, possibly in the dark, and I was still battling with a bad stomach). I'm very sure that reaching the summit of Kili will feel vastly different though, however tough the climb is. Meanwhile I'm practising testing my willpower by making myself do all kinds of things which I really don't want to do. Walking the couple of miles home rather than taking the bus when it's late at night, freezing cold and pouring with rain, with every step I remind myself that climbing Kili will be far worse than this, so I should just get on with it and stop whingeing. On Thursday night I forced myself to carry on the remaining 30 minutes of a spin class even though my blood sugar was low and I felt like lying down and closing my eyes (for the worried amongst you about the wisdom of this, I had taken plenty of glucose and turned my insulin pump off, so I wasn't actually going to lose consciousness by carrying on, it just felt like it). At least this willpower testing is doing my training no end of good, by forcing me to carry on when I'd normally just give up. I'm sure it's a good philosophy for life.

Oh, and this is the old lady I shall be imagining. If she can do it....

How hard can it be to climb Mt Kilimanjaro?

Don't get me wrong. I'm pretty sure that climbing Kilimanjaro is not a walk in the park, in spite of the title of this blog. But I've always been of the mindset that you can do pretty much anything if you want it badly enough. Obviously there are some exceptions. But you only have to look around at the amazing things that many disabled people get up to, to realise that it's the mind and not the body which is self-limiting. When I was 18 and travelling in New Zealand, I never thought I could do a bungee jump until I saw a video of a 70 year old doing one. "If he can do it at that age, what on earth is stopping me doing one?" And with that I signed up, threw myselff off a 141ft (34m) high bridge above a swirling river, and thought I was going to die. It was the best and worst moment of my life rolled into one. I didn't die, but I did rip my stomach muscles and couldn't walk properly for a week, let alone laugh or cough. But that moment set the scene for a lifetime of pushing myself to the limits to regain that sense of achievement.

Having turned 40 this year, I set about finding myself a challenge. At this point I should mention that while I currently feel fitter than I have in the last 20 years a least, I have numerous health problems and I'm very aware that my body may not hold out for nearly as long as I would like. In fact my fitness might deteriorate from now on. I've had type 1 diabetes for more than 30 years, I lost a lot of my sight 15 years ago and am technically registered blind (though I still have a fair bit of usable sight in one eye) and I have asthma and IBS, not to mention the minor health niggles that pretty much everyone has - bad back, dodgy knees, and so on. Oh and I've broken something like 12 different bones at varios times. What spurs me on perhaps the most though is the fact that my dad, a type 1 diabetic for over 50 years and now in his 70s, lost both his legs last year as a result. That really brought home to me how fragile we are, and the fact that if I leave it too long to do these things, it might be too late. So there we go....I can still walk. So I can climb Kilimanjaro if I put my mind to it. It really doesn't require any other skills except for a bit of fitness, a bit of luck and preparation to avoid alttude sickness, and the right mindset.

So, assuming I get medical clearance, in February 2013 I shall be climbing Kili and raising some money for charity. I have no doubt that, like the bungy jump, it will be one of the worst and best experiences of my life. I'll be updating this blog throughout my preparations, as well as my regular blog for other topics.