A South Cheshire man has successfully scaled Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of Macmillan Chemotherapy Suite at Leighton Hospital in Crewe.
Roy Price, from Crewe, made the self-funded trip to Tanzania to climb the highest mountain in Africa in September this year.
Kilimanjaro was a succession of climate zones with rainforest giving way to heath, boulder fields and high desert before the final stage of the climb.
Roy, 51, raised money in memory of his wife Ruth, who passed away in February from secondary breast cancer.
Ruth was treated at the Macmillan Cancer Unit at Leighton Hospital.
Roy and his friend Ian Jones, 46, also from Crewe, have raised £4,128 so far this year.
Roy has also made a personal donation of £4,500 to the local charity Shine Bright Foundation to help fund trials for triple negative breast cancer and support anybody receiving breast cancer treatment.
Roy said: “My friends were calling me crazy when I booked the trip to Tanzania at the end of April – you must be mad most of them said!
“I decided at the end of May to start putting some serious effort in to training.
“Not only did I shed one and a half stone in weight I put myself in the best position possible to take on Kilimanjaro.
“What an adventure, I’m telling everyone Kilimanjaro was easy and I guess it was compared to how I expected to be, but in honesty it was hard work.
“I had no idea what effects the altitude would have on my body, my first trip up a mountain was the 27th of May this year and believe me Kilimanjaro is nothing like Snowdon!
“I was extremely lucky as I suffered no altitude sickness whatsoever, although I did suffer with a stomach bug 24 hours prior to summit day meaning I’d had little or no sleep and couldn’t really eat much.
“Despite this when we headed for the summit I knew nothing would stop me, I was pretty tired and hungry so all I could do was to focus on my goal of touching the stars on what would have been my 27th wedding anniversary.
“I’d taken a pink flashing bow headband with me which I wore on the summit for a photo, some will understand this and some won’t.”
“It’s absolutely amazing the support I’ve had and the number of people following my story.”
A total of £8,628.01 has gone to charity because of the challenge.
Carole Salmon, Community Fundraiser at Mid Cheshire Hospitals Charity, said: “A massive well done and thank you to Roy for completing this challenge of a lifetime.
“It has been a pleasure to support him with his fundraising.
“The local community have really got behind him in lots of different ways.”
Jacky Atkinson, from Shine Bright Foundation, said: “What Roy achieved in such a short period of time this year is phenomenal.
“All his training and hard work and his continuous efforts to raise awareness of Shine Bright Foundation and Triple Negative Breast Cancer have boosted our charity no end.
“When we had the cheque presentation at The Woodside we thought we knew the amount Roy was giving to us.
“He then uncovered the amount he was donating to us and it was £4,500!
“To say it was emotional is an understatement and I definitely had a few tears.
“My one regret, Roy found a Shine Bright contact card in Ruth’s possessions, I just wish we had been able to meet her and help her.”
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