Couple in Kilimanjaro climb raise more than £10,000 for charities
For some people, climbing Kilimanjaro is one of the hardest things you can ever do, but for Kate Richards, it was even harder.
Kate was due to reach the summit of the highest free-standing mountain in the world alongside her husband Stu, but unfortunately he was taken ill after reaching base camp and she had to go the rest of the way without him.
Stu eventually recovered from the altitude sickness and Kate managed to complete the climb in four nights and five days, instead of the usual six nights and seven days, as the pair, from Forden, Montgomery, have raised over £10,000 for their chosen charities.
It was always Kate's dream to climb Kilimanjaro and she said she wanted to do it for charity.
"My sister, Claire, suffers from Lupus so I wanted to raise money for Lupus UK and also Self Help Africa," she said. "Stu and I married in 2018 and we since decided we just wanted a bit of a challenge really.
"We do lots of walking and things so thought it would be good to do this climb. We started fundraising in August when we held a fundraising ball.
"It was a black tie gala and African themed. We raised £8,500 from it and then from there it has been people very kindly giving donations. We have raised over £10,000 since and we hope after the final push it will be near to £11,000.
"It is crazy how generous people are."
Kate, 31, and Stu, 32, started their climb on 23 September and that is when Stu got ill with altitude sickness and the medics wanted to airlift him from base camp.
Kate said: "Stu was really poorly. They said he might have had a swelling on the brain so he came down that night. I reached the summit on the 27 September and then made my way down.
"I felt bad going on without him but he wanted me to. It was very hard and my guide really had to push me on the last bit because he could tell I wanted to get back down to Stu.
"I was the first one to summit that day. I overtook lots of people. We kind of just ran down. Stu was fine as soon as he got back to sea level."
For their final fundraising push, Kate, a veterinary nurse, and Stu, an auctioneer, are holding a pub quiz on Thursday at the Cottage in Montgomery from 7pm. For more information, email kate-stu2018@outlook.com.
