You may have noticed that I didn’t include a link to my usual charity partner in my “Merry Christmas” post. That was because, this year, I had chosen a separate charity, Dig Deep. The reason for doing so was personal – my daughter is climbing Kilimanjaro in August this year to raise funds for this charity and I didn’t yet have the details of her fund raising page, which has now just gone “live”.
If that wasn’t personal enough, she is making the climb exactly 70 years after my father made the same climb in 1952 as a very young (18 years old) land surveyor as part of the British survey team that updated the German colonial measurement. His team’s figure of 19,340 feet (5,895 meters) is the one recorded at the peak. It is astonishing to relate that my Dad’s team’s measurement, seventy years ago, when re-calibrated using current GPS technology in 2008 was only out by 10 feet (3.2 meters)!
And so, to the point of this message, the fundraising page: https://dig-deep.enthuse.com/pf/catherine-jones
Catherine is a very accomplished young lady, studying at Edinburgh University, but even she would accept the accuracy of her mother’s comment that “Catherine is not the member of the family considered the most likely to climb Kilimanjaro”! She has, however, put a great deal of effort into preparing for the expedition and, if that is not enough, she has sacrificed her 21st birthday party to be at or close to the summit on that date. My father is immensely proud of her commitment and the whole family are, frankly, amazed at the method that she has chosen to support this very worthy cause.
If you feel able to support a hugely worthy cause (and, also, leave Catherine with no alternative but to make the climb!), please follow the link, above.
I will also share details of the state that Catherine was in when she returns!
