Ken Stahly writes:
It’s been almost three months since the intrepid Team Stahly completed the mammoth challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. The aches and pains have healed and the less pleasant parts of the experience have faded leaving only the excellent memories of the people, the lighter moments, the scenery and views and the massive sense of achievement.
The total funds raised now stands at over £17, 000 which is amazing. The money will go towards ongoing Rotary projects in Tanzania and every member of the team would like to thank everyone who made a donation. The support from friends, family and colleagues has been fantastic and pushed everyone to work hard at making it all worthwhile.
We reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at 0930 (local time) on Thursday 19th January. From left to right the team is: Iain Taylor, Bill Stewart, Mairead Stewart, Sue Stahly, Ken Stahly, Trevor Francis. As you can see, Sue is holding a can of Stahly Scotch Haggis which I later gave to the head guide, Jonas, who had never heard of haggis before but he was very pleased to receive the gift and looked forward to trying it. I also gave Jonas and the porters some whisky to drink with the haggis.
Stahly Quality Foods’ haggis has now officially reached the roof of Africa.
This challenge was the hardest thing that any of us have ever done but, as you can imagine, we are all really pleased and happy to have made the trip and to have
completed such a huge achievement.
Kilimanjaro Summit: Ken Stahly and friends with the Stahly Haggis which travelled to the roof of Africa
All six of us were sponsored to take on this challenge and the benefits of this was what kept us motivated to reach the top. The funds raised have produced a book which will educate all primary school children in Tanzania on dealing with life with albinism which
is a huge problem in Africa. After returning from the climb, we attended a small ceremony to hand the books over to a dermatology centre where research is being carried out and
it was excellent to see first hand how our efforts translated to helping real lives. Several other Tanzanian charities will also benefit from the donations and we also visited some
of these in the days following the climb.
The climb raised around £15,000 in funds for the project. Money is still coming in and it is not too late to make a donation. Just follow the link –
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charities/rotaryclubofkirkcaldycharitabletrust