Horseleap man completes Kilimanjaro climb in aid of two charities

By Rebekah O'Reilly

Horseleap man John McGuinness has completed his once-in-a-lifetime climb of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

John fought through extreme weather conditions and severe altitude sickness to reach the summit in aid of two worthy charities Cancer Care West, Galway, and Cambodian charity Hile Teuk Kampuchea.

Having first set off on the expedition on January 30, the 51-year-old spent eight days climbing.

"There's about nine different routes that you can climb Kilimanjaro on. I chose the Lesmosho route, it's an eight-day trail. I chose it because I'm over 50 and I thought it would be nice to have an extra day to acclimatise on the way up. I was successful in reaching the summit but My God was it difficult with severe altitude sickness and extreme weather conditions almost throughout the climb," John said.

"I was a little bit unfortunate that I went in the dry season, but it was anything but dry! While hiking I had rain, sleet, hail, snow, wind - I had it all," he said. "Temperatures as I approached the summit were -20 degrees with a wind of 30 km/hr, giving a true temperature of closer to -30 degrees."

He said now he can reflect that the weather conditions made reaching the summit even more special.

John has a personal connection to both of the charities. This acted as a major motivator for him to keep pushing through to reach the mountain top despite the challenging conditions.

Cancer Care West, Galway in particular is close to John's heart following the passing of his beloved mother Ita McGuiness in 2014.

"Mum had cervical cancer for five years prior to her passing, and she spent a lot of time in Cancer Care West in Galway. We cannot speak highly enough of the organisation and the attention to detail that they gave to our mum, it was second to none. To mark her tenth anniversary, I decided I wanted to mark it in a special way - and that's when I decided to take on Kilimanjaro."

Cambodian charity HTK was first brought to John's attention through his close friend Alan Morgan, and the mission really resonated with him.

"My very dear friend Alan took an early retirement and decided to go out to Cambodia to work with the HTK charity. They're a charity that work with young people. There are many tragic cases of children drowning in the region, and HTK help the people there to learn about the dangers of water. They've had a huge effect on the community in Cambodia, and listening to Alan's stories of their work really inspired me."

To date, John has raised €8,440 for the charities from some 105 donations, far surpassing his initial target of €5,000. John fully funded his expedition to ensure that all funds donated go directly to the charities.

"The real heroes of this story are those people who work with the charities," John said. "On a personal level, it is a great achievement, but the fundraising is really about them."

John hopes to write a short memoir about his expedition which will be sold to raise further funds for the charities, as well as sharing his story with those from the organisations.

He will also travel to Cambodia with his wife next September to see the work of HTK in person.

To donate, go to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/hile-teuk-kampuchea-cancer-care-west-charities