£1000+!

Yay!  I passed the £1000 mark on my donation site!  A rush of money in the past couple of weeks, some from a gig and much from personal donations, pushed me beyond this first milestone!

Well, since I last wrote I've been working hard at visiting schools.  All told, I've made 30+ visits and have quite a few signed up.  One of them has over 500 kids so, at £1/head for a non-uniform day, that's a tidy sum I should be getting!  One slog, however, is that I've started writing a lot of very personal letters and e-mails asking for money.  At times I feel embarrassed, but I shouldn't really as it's all for the charity.

So, thanks to all that have contributed so far!

New beginnings

Well, summer is fading fast as the autumn winds bring rain across the Atlantic to our shores.  The first leaves are turning colour and the shadows are getting longer.  As the picture says, it's a time of new beginnings. 

So, back to the gym for me with a renewed vigor.  My trial hike in the Lake District was a success, thanks Tim, though I might need to see a podiatrist for some foot pains.  There is sooo much good news on the fundraising front too!  As I post this blog my total is rapidly approaching the £1,000 mark.  Some of it is still to be transferred to the Diabetes UK donation site, but things have started to take off!

A number of schools have agreed dates for non-uniform days, in return for chats by me, and a mate is doing a charity gig just for me this coming weekend, thanks Martin & Sally for that!

I'll be sending personal letters to all I know very soon, so keep an eye on your post box!

Cheers,  Bruce xx



How the world turns...

Well, things are GREAT!  How about you?  I've been able to get eight schools to agree to do a non-uniform day on my behalf  That'll probably bring in £1-1,500!  I'll be approaching another five in the autumn.  Also, a friend who plays in a blues band is about to set a date for a gig in aid of funds too!  All in all, things are looking up.

I must admit, I've been a bit slack on the training front.  I'll kick back in after the summer holidays though.  Even so, I feel a tad fitter even if I've only been doing a couple of hours of cardio work a week.

On the money front, I'm nearly at the £500 mark.  I don't think things'll pick up until the winter.  I'm sure a lot of folks just think it's too far 'til next June.  I keep telling them that I need their donations up front AND before April 2011.  But, you can't, and shouldn't, rush peoples' generosity.

Just a quickie this time.  Please donate if you haven't already.  Thanks, Bruce

A walk in the hills...and hello to Ciara!

Well, a couple of days ago I went for a walk in the Simonside Hills near Rothbury with my two sons, Dominic and Kris.  We walked for about two hours and got to the top of Tosson Hill, about 1,400 feet high.  The weather was great, hot for us at about 28 degrees C, as we tramped across farm land beside streams and through heather.  The bracken was very dry so we were careful when we set up a little portable barbeque for our burgers!

It was the first time I'd been in the hills in years, choosing our beautiful coastline in preference, or a walk alongside the River Coquet at Warkworth, of late.  I felt my legs aching as we pushed on up the last, steep bit of the hill, but it was worth it, as it always is, for the view out towards the higher points in the Cheviot range.  I think I'll count this as one of my two training sessions for this week.  I'll head for the gym at the weekend. 

On the fundraising front, things are coming along slowly, probably too slowly.  But, I have an invitation to speak at a Soroptomist meeting in exchange for them passing the hat round.  They are an organisation that promotes womens' welfare globally.  But, the BIG news this week is that I'm now not alone on the trek!  The trekking company, Charity Challenge, have a facility for people who have paid their deposit to be able, if folks are willing to share their details, for others to see who's paid up.  Up until now there has only been me and someone who doesn't want to share their contact stuff.  But, as of a couple of days ago, somebody else appeared, an Irish lass called Ciara (Kiera in English).  She says she thinks another eight of her mates are seriously considering doing the trek in aid of charity too.  That's great news as there needs to be a minimum of 12 for it all to go ahead (the maximum is 20, btw).

So, I'm feeling great and Ciara's arrival has given me a real boost!  Don't forget to donate via the Diabetes UK link if you're able.  Cheers, Bruce

My new best friend!

Well, for those not in the know, this is a cross trainer as found in gyms and health clubs.  Today I went for a bit of an orienteering session at Oasis Health Club in Ashington who are supporting me in my charity climb.  By that I mean that I went along with my wife, Rexie, and Kris to try out a few pieces of equipment.  I found the cycling machines quite easy on my legs, so too the static walkers.  But, the cross trainers were hard on my poor old, underused muscles.  My thighs aren't exactly killing me, but they felt the strain of a couple of decades of under use.  Even so,  it was worthwhile to get a feel for the place and I'll be looking to go there maybe about three times a week, mostly after work. 

Having had a wonderful trip abroad to visit family this past week, I've decided I must draw a line in the sand and really get down to some serious fundraising.  At work I'll be approaching my surgery to put up some posters in the waiting rooms as well as contacting the diabetes nurses at the local hospital in Durham.  Nearer home, the article I was interviewed for appeared in the press:

http://www.newspostleader.co.uk/latest/Nurse-to-climb-Kilimanjaro-for.6272662.jp

I like the photo as it shows off the Diabetes UK logo and I'm glad that Kevin, the health club owner, got in on the action.

So, you can rest assured that I'll be both burning up a few unwanted calories as well as toning up my muscles.  Don't forget to donate if you're able!

Photo famous!

Well, today was photoshoot day at the health club!  A local newspaper, the News Post Leader, sent a bloke to do some shots with myself and the owner of Oasis Health Club, Kevin, and my youngest, Kris, the one who has Type 1 diabetes. Well, you should've seen what contorted positions the photographer made us get into!  All three of us were grouped over one of the walking machines, me pretending to step out; Kevin looking as if he was marking my progress and Kris offering up some Lucozade drink, not that the machine was switched on! LOL!  Once the prints appear in the paper, I'll try to scan them in so you can give your opinions.

Apologies for not posting an update recently.  Work has been very busy of late.  As you can see from the donations website, money has dried up for now, mostly because I've not been devoting any time to the cause.  More fool me!  Well, my plan is to spend quite a bit of time now on writing letters etc, as well as following up some phone contacts I've made in the world of nursing and medicine.  This coming week I'm abroad in the Czech Republic at a family event where I'll, hopefully, be able to devote some time to mapping out some plans and creating letters and posters etc.

One thing that has inspired me recently is to hear about a pupil from one of my wife's old school's sister schools in Lagos who has set a new world record for climbing Kili as the youngest female, at age 10 years 26 days!  Here's the link to the story:

 http://www.coronaschools.org/News/Corona-Pupil-Sets-New-World-Record.aspx

So, here's looking forward to stepping off the plane from Eastern Europe and into the gym. Thirteen months and counting to get myself in shape!

Market talk

One thing I hope we have time for is to visit the local markets when I'm in Arusha, my base town in Tanzania.  Apart from the fruit and veg market, I'd like to see the one run by the Masai too!  I eat a lot of West African food at home like plantain, okra, yam, fufu, dodo etc and I'd like to see what the east has to offer.

Well, I've had a busy day contacting local newspapers etc and hope to hear back this week for a photo shoot.  Diabetes UK kindly sent me a free T-shirt for the shot - thanks, Hannah!  I also had a good chat with my son's diabetic team at the hospital.  They're super keen to help out!  I'll e-mail them with some ideas.

The WorldPay aspect of the donation site STILL isn't accepting overseas payments - grrr!  I have loads of overseas family and contacts.  That's a biggie for Hannah to sort out!  Why call yourself WorldPay if you really mean UK pay.  Aaaargh!

On the kit front, spotted some reduced price Merino gloves/mit liners in Alnwick.  I might get them at the weekend.

Off to bed to read a couple of old guidebooks I've found on Kili and Tanzania!  Don't forget to comment, or donate!  :o)

Kit coming in and walking buddies

Well, I've made my first purchase for the trek, some Icebreaker longjohns and a top.  These are pure New Zealand Merino wool and act as a base layer to keep me warm.  Bigger news than that, though, is getting a whole bunch of stuff on loan from my mate, Rob.  This includes a top of the range sleeping bag, and a vaiety of clothes from fleeces to gaiters. He's used this kit on high altitude walks in South America and Nepal in the past.  Thanks, Rob!

On another front, my wife, Rexie, and I went to visit another ol' buddy, Tim, in the Lake District this past weekend.  I've known Tim for nearly a quarter of a century.  He, like Rob, is another hiking fanatic having specifically moved to Kendal to have access to the hills when not teaching at a local high school.  His knowledge of the Lakeland fells is enormous, having done well over 100 of the famous Wainwright Walks.  We spent a few hours going over a few routes we might tackle over the coming few months as I begin my preparations.  Tim is particularly good at working out the lengths and difficulties of walks, knowing which ones might mimic, though not in height, some of the Kili sections.

Looking back at my last posting, I see the problem regarding using World Pay on the donation site.  Having corresponded with the charity, they suggest overseas sponsors use the UK post (zip) code NW1 7AA, the charity's own, when completing the form online.  Hopefully, things should then progress smoothly.

And finally, for now, I made a fortuitous purchase at a local secondhand bookstore today.  While hunting through the mountaineering section, I came across a Kili guidebook from 1971!  It was weird hearing that, back then, one might encounter the likes not only of elephants in the rainforest part of the climb, still just about possible, but also black rhino!  These days, you'd have to go 100km to find the nearest one!

At the back of the book, a fold out map shows a much more extensive glacier ring to the top of Kibo, the highest of the three volcanic points on Kili, than is there today.  Indeed, it shows something called the Retzel glacier which no longer exists but nowadays forms part of the scree run that I'll have to negotiate when I push for the summit.  Current thoughts are that the glaciers might be wholly gone in the next 20-30 years :o(

Well, off to contact a few newspapers to get some press for the gym.  I'm also going to try to get through to my local diabetes teams, both here in Northumberland and also where I work in County Durham.  Here's to next time.  Please feel free to donate or comment.  Cheers!  Oh, and btw, the picture is of a Colobus monkey of the sort I'm likely to see in the forest on the first couple of days on the mountain.

More offers, more followers!

First of all, welcome to my latest follower, McMurdo!  Glad to have you on board along with the other two, one in the UK, the other in Oz!!

Above is an image of the route I'm taking up Kili.  Like all the other images, it expands if you click on it!  There are half a dozen routes up, but this is by far the longest.  This is a good thing as it'll give me more time to acclimatise.

Well, overnight another offer of help came in.  An old friend, Rob, who has trekked in Peru and elsewhere around the globe, has offered to lend me whatever bits of kit he has that'll be of use.  One thing that'll save me a small fortune is his 4 season sleeping bag.  His is top of the range and beyond.  The nights get colder as you ascend so this is a real boost!

We had Rob over for supper yesterday evening and spent ages chatting on about Kili and how it compares to, or differs from, some of the climbs he's done.  Like the chap in the hiking shop a couple of days ago, he had a wealth of useful information, pretty much concurring with what the shop assistant said, which is reassuring.

You may have noticed I haven't really mentioned much about training so far...well, that's 'cos I ain't done any, apart from walking our toy poodle, Summer, up the field at the end of our street.  I will get going properly once I've sorted the publicity for the gym but, in the meantime, I'm just going to go for longer and harder walks.  Both Rob from last night and my mate, Tim, in Kendal in the Lake District have suggested I go out with them when I can find the time to go for a day or a weekend's hike.  That'll be good and I'll have the chance to do both summer and winter hikes into the mountains, such as they are on this island we call home.

Off to clean house as we're expecting one of our daughters home with her new boyfriend for a few days.  Oh, and finally, I understand there are problems with using World Pay on the donation website.  I've e-mailed my contact at the charity.  I'll give her a ring from work tomorrow to see what the score is. 

Thanks for reading!  Please feel free to make comments.

Destiny!

You know those days when you get a confirmation that you're on the right track?  Well, today was one of those days for me.  I was in Europe's largest indoor shopping centre, the Metro Centre in Gateshead, when I chanced to go into one of the hiking shops, namely Blacks, and what a good choice that turned out to be!

I was met by one of the salesmen, Jason, who happened to be the deputy manager.  Not only is he ex-army and knew more about every piece of kit than anybody I've ever encountered but, wait for it, he's been up Kili not once but TWICE!  Well, you could've knocked me over with a feather!  I spent ages in the shop chatting on about all sorts of stuff, from insect repellent to fleeces etc, but, just as important to me, he told me loads about the mountain itself from firsthand experience.  It was really good to hear of some of the delights, as well as the perils.  As for kit, he did a great job talking me through the ranges telling me where my money could go, depending on my budget, of course.  The best thing came at the end, though. 

I'd gone out of the shop to grab a cuppa and returned to buy a real bargain, a set of thermal undies (both top and bottom) made of 100% pure New Zealand Merino wool from a firm called Icebreaker.  They're pretty expensive, though this is one of the things you don't want to skimp on as it can get to well below -20 degrees C on top of the mountain, especially when wind chill is taken into account.  With other things, Jason had shown me where I needn't break the bank. 

Having paid up at the till, I was just thanking him when the manager, Dean, came over and handed me a rarity, a card for getting 15% off all purchases!  Knowing that the company would not normally consider an individual for such a discount, and they'd only give stuff away for free to either celebrities or major corporate buyers, it showed they knew I was being serious in my quest. Okay, so they're going to get a good few quid out of me before I leave, but they didn't have to do it, especially as they didn't ask for publicity though, before I go, I think I'll try and get them some in the local media anyway!

So, all in all, a good day's work.  If you haven't made a donation yet, please go to my Diabetes Challenge website if you are able to support me.  Thanks.

Moving 3D image of Lemosho route

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/10/26/magazine/20071028_KILIMANJARO_GRAPHIC.html

Here's a link to a great account of a Kili climb done by a New York Times reporter.  There's a great 3D moving image included showing his route (on page 2), the same one I'll be taking - Lemosho.  The poor guy gets quite a bit of altitude sickness. 

As for the picture at the top, I'd be very happy to see that much snow!

The gym, the teacher and the supermarket

Loads of good news today! Yay!  One of my local gyms has agreed to train me for the trek in exchange for publicity.  I need to go off and round up the local press and then we can agree on the angle we're gonna take.

Also, I've e-mailed a local teacher who did the same Kili route last year.  Hopefully we'll be able to have a chat over a pint so that I can get firsthand knowledge of the climb and also learn about his fundraising exploits.

As well as these moves forward, I got the details of the Events Co-ordinator at my local giant supermarket.  Hopefully, I'll be able to do a sponsored bag pack etc.

And there's more, I also got a nursing friend, whose partner is diabetic, to agree to see if he'll do a sponsored gig for me!  He's the leader of a blues band and plays the harmonica.  That should rake a few quid in!

And finally, some more money came rolling in!  Thanks, folks!

New boots and contacts

Aren't these the bee's knees in hiking boots?  They are Cosmic 4D GTX's from Salomon.  They're only £160/$240!  Okay, back in the real world, so I'm going to get up the mountain with my bargain January sale boots from Berghaus at a third the price...;o)

Meanwhile, I'll be writing to the company to see if they'll give me some for free if we can do a publicity deal.  What do you think, eh?

On another front, I saw an old web article mentioning a local diabetic high school teacher, from Cramlington (about 10 miles south of here), who did the exact same route up Kili last September, and for Diabetes UK too!  I must get in touch to pick his brains about both fundraising and the trek to the top.

Coming home to Kili

Here's a classic photo of Kili. It goes some way to showing how it rises up over 15,000 feet from the African plains to the summit at 19,340,making it the tallest freestanding mountain in the world!

One overnight thought - I was listening to something on the radio the other day where a bloke from the Tanzanian tourist board was chatting on about his country. He used a phrase which I thought was interesting. He said, "truly, everybody comes home to Tanzania." He then went on to explain that, as the oldest human remains have been found in Tanzania, it's the place we ALL started out from. Therefore, in actual fact, it is our ancestral home, wherever we live on the planet these days!

Off to do some house tidying with, maybe, some time to do a little more Kili planning this afternoon...

At the gym and the hiking shop

Well, just got back from Morpeth with my copy of the Stedman book on Kili. That's my weekend reading sorted!

While there, dropped in on Northumbrian Hiking shop next to the Chantry. They were luke warm at offering me any kit for publicity, mostly cos the owner was away today. One angle they were taking is that it might be hard for them to support me during the economic downturn. I came straight back and said that maybe the best time for some positive publicity was right now, then?! I'll pop back next weekend. I'll investigate Snow and Trek in the meantime. Mind, if anybody has any kit that they could lend to me, please get in touch. I'm going to transfer my kit list onto a file that I could then e-mail out to folksd if needed. I draw the line at borrowing used undies, though! ;o)

I also went into Roadrunner Sports who, ostensibly, do sports kit as opposed to hillwalking, climbing stuff. The woman there was much more keen on a chat and happily talked about all the clothes they have to wick away moisture etc. I'll need to work on her too, but quite a contrast to the bloke on the opposite side of the road.

As for the gym, well, likely good news methinks. Again, the boss man wasn't in, but he works every evening so I'll catch him through the week. Oh, btw, I'm talking about Oasis in Ashington, keeping it local again, eh? When I brought up my notion of a free pass until I fly to Nairobi, the guy at the front desk was VERY encouraging. Apparently the owner has sponsored people over the years and is open for discussions, especially if, as with me, I'm not asking for any dosh, just to be able to train there in return for press coverage. There were two charity boxes/badge thingys at the reception desk, which I feel is a good omen.

I got a quick tour of the facilities and, thankfully, they seem to have all the right gear including step and cross trainers. The gym fella correctly stated I need to do lots of cardio work, which all the bumph from Diabetes UK and Charity Challenge highlight.

So, not a bad morning's work. I'll follow up all these leads through the week and I'll be checking out the press and other media too. Must get on with cooking my darling wife's lunch...

Cheers

Bruce

Starting out

Well, it's been one week since I signed up to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in June 2011, or Kili as us would-be mountaineers call it, for Diabetes UK and what an eventful week it's been already!

I've accomplished lots of things, the most important of which has been setting up my donation page at Diabetes Challenge:

http://www.diabeteschallenge/challenge/brucefraserkilimanjaro

Some money has already been given from two friends from different areas of my life; one, somebody I only know off a webforum I frequent, the other a nursing colleague. Thanks, ladies!

Well, what can you expect to read about over the next year and a bit? I'm planning on keeping things mixed up so that you get a flavour of what I'm going through, whether that be endlessly thinking up new ways to raise money, or me and my struggle to get fit. There'll be insights into what I'm having to get in the way of kit and, boy, is it extensive! Hopefully, you'll be seeing how well I get on with convincing people/shops to give it all to me for free in exchange for publicity.

My pack from Diabetes Challenge arrived yesterday with all its info on fundraising and stuff like how to access materials like their pretty pink collection boxes, T-shirts etc. The trekking company I'll be going with, Charity Challenge (http://www.charitychallenge.com/index.html), also have loads of helpful hints too on their web pages. I was up half the night both reading the bumph and clicking through stuff on my laptop. I dozed off surrounded by bits of paper with notes and ideas - I really must organise that side of things pretty quickly!

So, off to get a guide book by Henry Stedman on the climb itself. It seems to be the most recommended and has great reviews on Amazon. Will also drop in on the hiking shop in nearby Morpeth to see if the owner will give me some kit so long as we can get the media interested, which I'm sure we can. I'd like to give them the first bite at the cherry before I go to Snow & Rock at the Metro Centre in Gateshead, a much bigger concern.

Gotta dash, my wife has woken up this beautiful Saturday morning and needs tea and toast!

Please visit my donation site.