Vijay Kumar, Climbing Kilimanjaro, September 2009
Released on:
15/10/2009
Back in 2007 Vijay, a solicitor for the Michael Hill Partnership in Leicester, realised that his Diabetes had the potential to go “out of control” with dire medical consequences. By his own admission, he was unfit and overweight, but pledged to do something constructive about his situation. Revelling in a new found love of walking, he came across a link to Charity Challenge and the rest, as they say, is history…..
Vijay has been an integral part of the free legal advice surgery that is run at Coping with Cancer for many years, so when inspired to take on the challenge to trek to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal, Coping with Cancer was his chosen charity. Vijay raised £2,295 from the trek in May 2008, but despite his 50th birthday looming, this did not entirely quench his thirst for adventure!
In September 2009, Vijay set off to reach the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest free-standing summit on Earth at 5,895 metres. Vijay and 18 others reached the summit on the morning of 10th September, after setting out from the last camp at 11pm. It was, in his own words, “mentally and physically the hardest thing I have ever done in my life” – the extreme cold, dark and altitude means that many try and fail, but Vijay was the first to reach the summit at 08.05.
“Pole Pole”, which is Swahili for ‘slowly, slowly, was the mantra for Vijay’s trek and through the support and generous sponsorship from friends, family and local businesses he has reached his target of £3,500 for Coping with Cancer in Leicestershire and Rutland, supporting local patients and their families through their own ‘slowly slowly’ cancer journey.
Vijay has yet to decide if his walking boots will ‘come out’ for one last trek……
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