UPDATE - Issue 18 - Summer 2004
Fundraising climb of Mt Kinabalu
By our chairman Professor Roger Kirby
The rumours after last year's Operation Mt Kilimanjaro have come true. This year's fundraising expedition for the Prostate Research Campaign UK involves an arduous trek through the leech-infested rain forests of Borneo and the ascent of hazardous Mount Kinabalu during the rainy season!
Roger Plail (left) and Roger Kirby
in climbing gear
At 13,429ft Mt Kinabalu is South East Asia's greatest challenge for climbers. It was born one and a half million years ago, when a mass of granite rock that had been cooling and hardening under the surface for several million years began to rise and break through the overlying crusts of softer rocks. Erosion by heavy rains and, later, by ice and glaciers shaped the new mountain. Kinabalu is still rising - one estimate is 5mm per year - and the landslides on its slopes are evidence of the still-continuing erosion. Once again, physical strength and mental toughness will be needed to complete our attempt on the summit. Even with landmarks we are well aware that it is all too easy to lose our way.
Consultant Urologist John Dick
Several members of the team that successfully conquered Mount Kilimanjaro for Prostate Research Campaign UK are again up for the challenge. My son Joe, just back from his gap year in Africa, Consultant Urologist John Dick and his son Alistair, as well as two radical prostatectomy survivors and hardened marathon runners, Andrew Etherington and Rex Willoughby, together with Prof. John Fitzpatrick who got to the top of Kilimanjaro first. New to the rigours of mountain-climbing are Andrew Ball, a keen supporter of Prostate Research Campaign UK, Dr. Joseph Smith, an American Urologist, and Dr. Peter Amoroso, the anaesthetist who shed 40kg to run the London Marathon for Prostate Research Campaign UK - and who has successfully managed to keep off the weight! Another Consultant Urologist and Kilimanjaro hero, Roger Plail from Hastings, is accompanying us and using the event to launch his Million Prostate Miles Campaign, which will feature a coast-to-coast walk across Britain in September 2005.
Mount Kinabalu
Thanks to you and others like you we raised over £289,000 last year but we need your help to raise even more money this year. Please support us by giving generously. Every penny of your donation will go to the charity as all costs for the trip will again be self-funded.
Every penny goes to our funds
We are hoping one of the climbers will be able to give a short account of our adventure at the Lord Mayor's Reception on 29 September so come along and hear how we got on. Tickets are available to both this event and our annual Savoy Lunch on 20 October 2004, at which we will present a cheque for the funds raised: it is hoped that our Patron, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester will be able to attend both events.