Amanda Chalmers
Amanda's Challenge 12 - Challenge Amanda - Climbing for my Donor
Fundraising for To Transplant and Beyond
Story
Challenge12: Challenge Amanda: Climbing For My Donor
Charity – To Transplant And Beyond
www.challenge12.co.uk
I was once told, I am 'like a donkey with a carrot' and it’s true!! I enjoy a challenge, and need/want something to work towards. After being born with Cystic Fibrosis and my health declining to the point of needing and receiving a double lung transplant at the age of 24, these challenges have differed massively in range from climbing my stairs to my bedroom whilst on 24/7 oxygen therapy, learning to walk again after my transplant to training and completing the Brighton Marathon last year.
This years challenges will take me far beyond anything I have ever done before. This summer, along with a group of heart and/or lung transplantees from Harefield, I will be climbing Mount Cotopaxi, a stratovolcano in Ecuador, as well as some of the surrounding mountains. It stands at 5897 metres high, (just taller than Kilimanjaro,) and generally speaking Cotopaxi is a sought after prize for mountaineers with experience, let alone someone who has done very little climbing before! It is thought that no-one who has had a lung transplant has ever climbed to this height before, so as it currently stands, if any of the “lungs” make the summit, it will be a world record! To even have the chance of doing this is an amazing feat, and one that I can’t wait to attempt!
My second challenge, remains on a similar theme, but not one to want to exclude my friends from anything, I am getting people involved and have entered a Spartan Beast race at the end of September. It takes place two days before my three year ‘Lungiversary” so what a better way to celebrate…right??!! The Spartan Beast race, is a 13mile long cross-country run with about 25 muddy, painful obstacles thrown in your way! After trying to find out what most of these said obstacles actually are, I realised that they like to keep them quiet and just surprise you on the day!
I am doing both challenges to raise awareness for organ donation and to show what transplant patients are capable of doing with their second chance at life. This year is Harefield’s centenary, and I owe my life to the doctors and nurses who looked after me, before, throughout, and after my transplant. I am fundraising specifically for Organ Care Systems for Harefield Hospital, a new method of organ transportation extending the maximum time an organ can be safely outside the body before it is transplanted. This has the ability to increase the amount of transplants happening and lives saved, as well as providing other significant medical benefits. Currently these machines are not available on the NHS and so each hospital has to fund them for themselves.
So now with this year’s events down in my diary, training will once again commence and I will yet again be working towards my ‘carrot’, and my overall aim of raising money, spreading awareness of organ donation and proving the amazing impact it can have on someone's life, but ultimately, every challenge that I undertake is in memory of donor.
To read more on the Organ Care Systems and about the trip to Ecuador, please go to http://www.climbingformydonor.co.uk
I would be grateful for any support you are willing to give to sponsor for Ecuador and/or the Spartan Race. Thank you.
Challenge12 is a community based fundraising network, set up by friends, encouraging anyone from the public to get together, challenge themselves and raise money for charity by doing any combination of our 12 selected challenges for one of our selected charities. Do just one, a couple or even all 12! You can even do your own thing if you want!
http://www.challenge12.co.uk
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
Charity – To Transplant And Beyond
www.challenge12.co.uk
I was once told, I am 'like a donkey with a carrot' and it’s true!! I enjoy a challenge, and need/want something to work towards. After being born with Cystic Fibrosis and my health declining to the point of needing and receiving a double lung transplant at the age of 24, these challenges have differed massively in range from climbing my stairs to my bedroom whilst on 24/7 oxygen therapy, learning to walk again after my transplant to training and completing the Brighton Marathon last year.
This years challenges will take me far beyond anything I have ever done before. This summer, along with a group of heart and/or lung transplantees from Harefield, I will be climbing Mount Cotopaxi, a stratovolcano in Ecuador, as well as some of the surrounding mountains. It stands at 5897 metres high, (just taller than Kilimanjaro,) and generally speaking Cotopaxi is a sought after prize for mountaineers with experience, let alone someone who has done very little climbing before! It is thought that no-one who has had a lung transplant has ever climbed to this height before, so as it currently stands, if any of the “lungs” make the summit, it will be a world record! To even have the chance of doing this is an amazing feat, and one that I can’t wait to attempt!
My second challenge, remains on a similar theme, but not one to want to exclude my friends from anything, I am getting people involved and have entered a Spartan Beast race at the end of September. It takes place two days before my three year ‘Lungiversary” so what a better way to celebrate…right??!! The Spartan Beast race, is a 13mile long cross-country run with about 25 muddy, painful obstacles thrown in your way! After trying to find out what most of these said obstacles actually are, I realised that they like to keep them quiet and just surprise you on the day!
I am doing both challenges to raise awareness for organ donation and to show what transplant patients are capable of doing with their second chance at life. This year is Harefield’s centenary, and I owe my life to the doctors and nurses who looked after me, before, throughout, and after my transplant. I am fundraising specifically for Organ Care Systems for Harefield Hospital, a new method of organ transportation extending the maximum time an organ can be safely outside the body before it is transplanted. This has the ability to increase the amount of transplants happening and lives saved, as well as providing other significant medical benefits. Currently these machines are not available on the NHS and so each hospital has to fund them for themselves.
So now with this year’s events down in my diary, training will once again commence and I will yet again be working towards my ‘carrot’, and my overall aim of raising money, spreading awareness of organ donation and proving the amazing impact it can have on someone's life, but ultimately, every challenge that I undertake is in memory of donor.
To read more on the Organ Care Systems and about the trip to Ecuador, please go to http://www.climbingformydonor.co.uk
I would be grateful for any support you are willing to give to sponsor for Ecuador and/or the Spartan Race. Thank you.
Challenge12 is a community based fundraising network, set up by friends, encouraging anyone from the public to get together, challenge themselves and raise money for charity by doing any combination of our 12 selected challenges for one of our selected charities. Do just one, a couple or even all 12! You can even do your own thing if you want!
http://www.challenge12.co.uk
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.