Background
My involvement with disability started when our youngest daughter was born severely disabled on Valentine’s Day in 2002.
I think the experience of raising a severely disabled child made me more empathetic to disability, and I started getting involved with a number of related charities, for whom I have done fundraisings. All of these involved physical challenges, as I thought that creating jeopardy would help improve the level of donations! In particular, I have chosen climbing mountains, such as Etna, Toubkal, the highest in the Atlas, and Kilimanjaro.
I joined Yateley as a Trustee in 2021 as part of a new Board. Of all the disabled charities I have been involved with, this is the one where I have developed the greatest emotional connection. I believe strongly in the right of disabled people to work, and the tremendous sense of self-worth that is derived. Even with greater awareness of Inclusivity, there is still tremendous bias, albeit mainly passive, against disabled people in the workplace. This really needs to change in mainstream corporations.
At nearly 69, I wanted to do one more mountain before it was too late, this time for Yateley. One of my older twin daughters, Natasha, suggested we climb Gran Paradiso, the highest in Italy in the Alps. This was a great chance to do something intensive and worthwhile with one of my daughters, and so I arranged the trip and climb for June 2024.
Immediately I started training on the South Downs my right knee started hurting due to a torn meniscus I had incurred several years ago, which I need to manage. So I stopped the climbing and just kept up the swimming and airbike regime I normally do each morning to try to maintain fitness.
The Climb
We flew out on the Sunday 23rd June and met our climbing group of 5 others and 2 guides that evening in Chamonix. They were a wonderful bunch, all amateur climbers, mostly from Scotland!
Although I have been to a higher altitude on Kili, I had never climbed on a glacier. So I was grateful for a first day’s training on the Mont Blanc glacier with crampons, ropes and harnesses, wearing helmets. This was important because, although it was June, the guides said they had never seen so much snow on the mountain for that time of year. We reached the refuge on Tuesday and set off at 5am on Wednesday for the summit. The glacier started a kilometre lower down than usual, which meant getting on crampons and roped up a lot earlier than usual. This made the climb longer and more difficult.
When we neared the summit, the sky cleared, and the sun came out. The final ascent up a ‘via ferrata’ (iron rungs embedded in a vertical rock face) was really scary, as I don’t like heights, and there was a near vertical drop of 1,000 feet on the opposite side. The top of the mountain was a flat space about 8 feet square with a statue of the Madonna in the middle, which was quite surreal. The sun and the cloud formation made it quite ethereal ( see attached picture).
Coming down the high temperature had turned large patches of deep snow into slush,and I was going thigh deep into it with nearly every step, despite the crampons. We got back to the refuge for a lunch before starting off on another 2 ½ hour descent down to the valley. By this time I was pretty shattered; my legs were spasming towards the end. The following two days I could hardly walk.
Two weeks on…
I have been really touched by the response to the sponsorship of our challenge. Natasha and I have raised £18,000 for Yateley from nearly 200 wonderful people, which is incredible. It’s also been written up in our local newspaper, The Petersfield Post – Read here.
Thank you so much to everybody who has contributed, and for all the good wishes.
I certainly don’t feel like doing another climb right now, but who knows?
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Yateley Industries
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