How and Why am I doing this?

 Before I start, I must say I am not a professional climber, or mountaineer, I have never done anything like this in my life. 'First time for everything'


It started in December 2012. I was using the internet on my laptop. I was on youtube. I forget what I was searching for but Kilimanjaro came up as a suggestion. Intrigued I clicked on it, and brought up a series of films about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I settled on watching a charity climb done by several celebrities a few years ago. After watching that something inside me was telling me. 'You have to do this'.
I spent a few weeks researching it, and thinking about it, and finally decided that yes I did have to do this, yes I wanted to do this.
On 10th January 2013 I committed myself to going, and signed up with Action Challenge to climb the Machame route of Mount Kilimanjaro, a 10 day trip leaving for Tanzania on 23rd August. I was excited, proud, and nervous when I received an email from Action Challenge confirming my place on the trip.
I had decided that I would do what the celebrities did in that film and climb for charity. Picking the charity to fund raise for was very easy. I decided that I would climb for Greyhound Rescue West of England (GRWE). I have a  Greyhound adopted from them called Kelly, and another rescue dog, a Lurcher called Stuart. GRWE rescue and re home, both, Greyhounds and Lurchers. It is a charity which is completely reliant on donations. I decided I would like to help them.