GOSH nurses tackle Kilimanjaro after being inspired by their young patients

Earlier this year, six of our fantastic nurses made the epic trek up Mount Kilimanjaro, one of the World’s tallest mountains, to raise money for the patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).The team work with young patients undergoing chemotherapy, who inspired them every day with their resilience and courage to take on a challenge of their own. We spoke to the nurses from Elephant Ward to find out more.

"Just over a year ago, six of us nurses from Elephant Ward, a ward for children with cancer and leukaemia, decided we wanted to challenge ourselves. Something to push our bodies physically and mentally to get a glimpse into the struggle our lovely patients go through every day during their chemotherapy.

"We wanted to give something back to our patients as they fill our days with so much joy and teach us about courage, bravery and belief. We really want to make the ward more homely and to make their time at the hospital more bearable."

"We decided the challenge should be to climb Kilimanjaro, the World’s highest free standing mountain, as we had heard it was great mental challenge to reach the summit and we would have to pull together to get us through the good and bad days.

"We set ourselves the ambitious fundraising target of £50,000. It would go towards play equipment and schemes for the ward. The fundraising took a lot of teamwork, but between the six of us we organised a raffle, a jazz night, many fundraising events and a few bake sales to help us reach our target.

"The second part of our challenge was the climb itself. As the mountain stands 5895 metres above sea level it would take us six days to get to the summit. The trek was unlike anything we had ever experienced. Each day the terrain changed constantly, transitioning from rainforest to bare rock, the track became steeper and we became more out of breath due to the higher altitude.

"The last night, the summit night, was the most mentally tough. After walking for seven hours that day, we went to sleep around 4pm to wake at 9pm, have some dinner and leave for the summit. It was dark and the temperature was -5˚C so we moved slowly, just putting one foot in front of the other for hours, seeing by touches and helped by our amazing guides as they sang their way up the mountain!"

"We reached the crater rim at sunrise, and found ourselves looking over one of the most beautiful views any of us had ever experienced. Reaching the summit was extremely emotional as the journey had required a huge amount of mental and physical strength. We all had beaming smiles on our faces knowing that we had achieved something so great!

"The intense experience of the six day trek up Kilimanjaro means we will now all be friends for life.

"We’re all from different walks of life but had the same goal to help the children at GOSH when signing up to climb the mountain. We’re thrilled as we’ve managed to reach our ambitious £50,000 target, which will now go towards play equipment and schemes for the children on Elephant Ward.

Feeling inspired to raise vital funds for our young patients? Follow in our nurses footsteps, and be part of something amazing by signing up for our next Kilimanjaro trek.