Thank you for visiting my just giving page which has been set up in memory of my closest friend Carly Chapman who we lost on 17th August in a tragic accident

I planned to climb Kilimanjaro for personal reasons and have self funded, however this climb now has a new meaning. Each and every step will be dedicated and in honor of my beautiful friend who we sadly lost way to soon. Carly was a beautiful soul who loved to travel and share her "Carly Calamity" moments. She has left a huge hole in so many lives. 

Carly's family and I have chosen the charity Go Beyond as they send children on holidays of a lifetime which we know Carly would love & support. Carly will be with me every step of the way and we will have a final Tina Tot toast at the top of Kilimanjaro.

Carly was my closest friend and imagining life without her is going to be tough. Carly and I had a similar outlook on life, loved a good quote and saying, we shared the love of travel and adventure which leads me on to why I'm climbing Kilimanjaro in the first place. 

Life throws curveballs or little bumps in the road. We often spoke of just taking one step at a time and not focusing on the whole mountain.  It really got me thinking on how that saying can be used no matter what life throws at you, particularly having gone through a number of curveballs and bumps in the road myself. 

With my big 50 looming and some self refection I came up with the bucket list idea of climbing Kilimanjaro in my 50th year. This was a particularly crazy idea for me as a number of years ago I got diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue. This will probably be a surprise to many who know me. At the time 14 years ago I made the decision to change my diet, lifestyle and perspective as didn't want CF to define me or impact my life in a negative way. I  used the same mantra of "Taking One Step at a Time"

Roll on to 2020 the plan was put in place to climb the National Three Peaks, The Yorkshire Three Peaks and then Kilimanjaro. Fate had it that a friend Arti needed to complete the nationals before the end of June 2020 to reach her 50th milestone goal so with just 34 days training I joined her with the  " One Step at a Time" approach, with each mountain having a personal meaning. Ben Nevis " The Past" Skafel Pike " The Present" and Snowdon "The Future". A big dose of fate again as on exactly the same weekend Carly's sister Jayne was climbing Skafel Pike, we had no communication and we happened to reach the summit at exactly the same time which is a chance in a million as we had  climbed different routes and were on different challenges. Carly was blown away at the chances of that.  Following a slight bump in the road with a nasty case of covid and a few curveballs later I managed a few more mountains including the Yorkshire Three Peaks and was on track for Kilimanjaro departing  15th September.  With the latest Curveball of losing my best friend  I'm not going to lie, I did seriously considered postponing Kilimanjaro but know in my heart Carly wouldn't want that. I know the journey is going to be tough as are many things in life but following the same approach "Taking One Step at a Time" I will be getting us both up that mountain! 

On average it will take approx. 128,263 steps to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro. I hadn't planned on fundraising as this was a personal goal to me, however under the circumstances I hope you sponsor a few steps to help me along the way, my employer Vodafone will match fund up to £1000.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart 

Tina x x x  

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