A travel agent has raised more than £2,000 for charity after scaling Kilimanjaro.
Jon Haworth, owner of Best Destinations in Accrington, Lancashire, took on the challenge to raise cash for the Gemma Rose Foundation, which pays for counselling for young families affected by cancer.
Gemma Nuttall, who was from Lancashire, died from cancer in October aged 29 after turning down treatment for ovarian cancer to save her baby’s life.
Despite being successfully treated after her daughter’s birth, the cancer returned and she later died.
Haworth, a Global Travel Group member, completed the hike over five days in March.
Haworth said: “The bond with the charity started off with my dad reading about Gemma in the newspaper. She needed to raise money for treatment that would enable her to spend more time with her daughter.
“My dad has cancer and he decided he wanted to help her and between us we began raising money for her.”
Best Destinations did a cruise giveaway three years ago and raised about £5,500.
Haworth said: “Kilimanjaro came about at her funeral last year. I spoke to her mother and said that we will continue fundraising and would do something next year.
“I was talking to one of my friends who said he was looking at doing the climb and I thought it was something that would push me to my limits. We thought, the tougher it is, the more likely we were to raise more money.”
Haworth booked the trip at the end of November with G Adventures and started his training regime which included 20-25km hikes in the Lake District, altitude training and spinning classes.
Haworth said: “We did a charity spinning class a few weeks before where we completed 10 spin classes back to back to raise additional funds for the Foundation.”
Haworth’s final summit to the peak took seven hours and 15 minutes. “It was a weird feeling at the top, the wind chill was -18. It didn’t really register what we had achieved until we were about 100 metres down and the wind was lower, it was a bit of a delayed reaction.”
To donate visit: uk.gofundme.com/mt-kilimanjaro-climb-for-the-gemma-rose-foundation