Story
Thanks for taking the time to visit my Just Giving page.
In March 2015, I will be attempting to
climb to the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, which
will take a total of 69 days.
In the run up to Everest, I am hoping
to complete a number of charity events, including climbing Snowdon FIVE times
in one day on Saturday 7 June, which is a total height of almost 18,000
feet!
I have previously trekked 100 miles to the North Pole in -40C temperatures, raising money for ‘Wishing on a Star’ charity, have climbed to the summit of Kilimanjaro, and at the start of 2014 almost reached the summit of Aconcagua in Argentina when it was closed due to avalanches, and was stopped just 200m from the top!
This year I am fundraising for The Millie Rose Appeal. Millie Rose was born the 14th June 2011 a much loved and wanted sister to Michael and Lexie and parents Michael and Lyndsay.
In the summer of 2012 just before Millie's 1st birthday her parents noticed she
wasn't herself, she seemed to catch every bug and virus going doctors prescribed
various antibiotics and calpol but nothing ever seemed to work. Despite all
this Millie was still a very loving happy child, it soon came to Christmas and
that's when alarm bells really started ringing Millie was loosing weight and
seemed to be catching every bug and virus, her mum and dad were taking her to
the doctors, local hospital and walk in centers at least once a week were it
was once again put down to ear infections and prescribing more antibiotics.
February came and Millie wasn't getting any better she was in fact worse and
put on iron tablets as she was very anaemic her eyes became black and swollen
and a lump appeared on her head, she had no energy to move so her parents knew
she hadn't banged it, that's when Lyndsay and Michael decided to take Millie to
alder hey.
Millie was seen right away at alder hey despite there being a 3 hour waiting
time, she was given numerous tests. The next day Michael and Lyndsay were met
by a doctor but nothing prepared them for what they were about to hear, they
were told that Millie had got cancer.
Millie went on to receive more tests which were a blare to her parents, Lyndsay
wondered whether these tests were to see if they had gotten the diagnosis
wrong. They were met by another doctor who confirmed the was neuroblastoma a
very hard aggressive cancer to treat and that Millie was in the final stages,
after realisation hit Lyndsay looked into neuroblastoma they learnt that if
Millie was to beat the cancer then there was an 80% chance of the cancer
returning and there is no relapse protocol in UK.
Millie has under gone harsh rounds of chemo and radiotherapy over the last 15
months, and just after Christmas 2014 we were given the news that Millie was
cancer free, three weeks later after routine tests showed the cancer had
returned a spot in Millie's elbow had showed up on a scan, this meant
Millie could go on a trial at Manchester children's hospital to take part in a
trial to see if they could clear Millie once again, a couple of weeks into the
trial Millie's chemo was stopped her blood counts were decreasing, so doctors
at Manchester wanted to retest Millie's bone marrow, and to see if the chemo
Millie was having was actually working, the spot had changed shape in Millie's
arm but the bone marrow test showed the cancer has progressed again.
Over the past 15 months a team of Michael and Lyndsay’s friends and family have
got together to try and raise money for Millie, this is so Millie could have
had immunotherapy if the cancer was clear, but now the funds we are raising,
are going to save Millie's life this could be in Germany and comes at a minimum
cost of £350,000 so we appreciate any help we can get.
Please support me as I attempt to climb Mount Snowdon for such a worthy cause.
Please see my website for previous charity expeditions - www.carlroland.com.