A Your Holiday Booking agent is celebrating the success of two clients who raised more than £50,000 for charity, after she helped rearrange their Kilimanjaro trip several times during the past 20 months.
Ashley Venditto originally booked the charity climb for her clients to depart in May 2020 – but the outbreak of the pandemic meant the departure date had to be moved several times until the pair finally achieved their goal in January 2022.
Her clients, Andy ‘Ginge’ Brown and Rob Ward, embarked on the fundraising challenge after Andy’s wife Nat died of cancer on Christmas Eve 2019.
They initially wanted to raise £8,000 for the St Peter & St James Hospice in Sussex which had cared for Nat.
When Venditto saw the picture of her clients at the summit of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, she said: “This was probably one of my happiest moments as a travel advisor. I feel like I have lived this journey with them.”
One of their first fundraising events was a race night in March 2020 and Venditto’s homeworking business sponsored a race.
“A couple of days later, we would go into our first full lockdown due to Covid-19,” she said.
However, the lockdown enabled the pair to focus on training outdoors and helped Ginge through this difficult time, commented Venditto.
More dates were planned and then rearranged during 2020 and 2021, so the pair continued training each day and raised funds with the national Three Peaks Challenge in the UK.
There was further anxiety as Rob contracted Covid ahead of the planned trip in January 2022 but fortunately tested negative ahead of their departure.
There were even more date and flight changes in the week before their trip because of scheduling changes with airlines.
“They have both said that this was the hardest thing they have ever done,” said Venditto.
“It’s an incredible achievement and I know that St Peter & St James Hospice are incredibly proud and grateful for the support of the local community and raising these funds.
“This really has helped to pull our community together during the last two years, amid the Covid pandemic.
“The tour operator African Pride has been amazing throughout the two years in helping to deal with the constant date changes and schedule changes and in providing help and support.”