Hello, I’m David Feeley and welcome my fundraising page.

I am travelling to Manitou Springs Colorado this coming September to hike the Manitou Springs incline in order to raise much needed funding for the St. Katherines Hospice, a UK based charity who offer adult palliative care for people with time limited lives. Further information on what they do can be found on their website https://www.khh.org.uk/ .

I am driven to succeed in this task by the memory of my good friend Peter Beesley’s mother who sadly passed some years back due to an operation gone wrong. Before she left us she was both a volunteer and in her last days, cared for at the Katherine House Hospice.

You may be wondering why I am doing this for a friends mother and the answer is that without her I may not be here today to honour her memory. Back in 2004 Peter and I had planned a holiday of a lifetime at Christmas time to see the Bridge over the River Kwai spend time on the beaches in Phuket near where the film the Beach was filmed. However Peter’s  keenness waned and he told me that wanted to spend time at home with his family because his mother was terminally ill. 

That Christmas we both stayed at home and with our families only to watch horrified as the Boxing Day Tsunami struck within 100 metres of our intended holiday hotel destination.

I have a personal interest in this endeavour along with the Hospice fund raising as I am a young man of 39 whose weight at this time is over 22 stone (140 Kg’s) as a result of binge eating after my relationship with my father broke down irrevocably. The hike I am undertaking can be deadly to those whose fitness is wanting and to this end I have been training hard at my local gym to lose at least 20 Kg’s with the help of a personal trainer and a therapist. This is my chance to regain a healthier weight and expunge the inner demons which have caused me to fall into the destructive binge eating cycle of the last few years.

A little about the challenge itself; firstly please note the trip is entirely self funded with no impact the funds raised for the charity. I have also sought the permission of Peter to do this for his mother and he has given me his full support.

The Manitou Springs Incline is a steep, stepped climb of 2744 steps close to the famous Pikes Peak, starting at 6,000 ft. it rises 2,000 ft. in elevation over the course of the 1 mile trail with a gradient varying from an average of 45% to 68% in places. It is not to be taken lightly and there have been fatalities. More information on the Incline can be found here. https://www.visitcos.com/things-to-do/outdoors/manitou-incline-near-colorado-springs-colorado/ 

My attempt will conclude with a 3 mile descent down Barr’s Trail as a descent of the Incline is strongly discouraged.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story and please be as generous as you can afford to help me raise much needed funding for this very worthy cause. Thanks to Spiceball Gym, Paul Cleaver and Rob Rotherford for the support and assistance in journey to getting my body and mind where it needs to be for this fundraiser.

David Feeley