NO MOUNTAIN TOO HIGH
Jennifer Lonergan talks to David Fearnhead about conquering Africa’s highest peak and what inspired her to take on such a daunting trek for charity
High Altitude Cerebral Edema is when the brain swells in the skull. The headaches don’t go away. They often bring with them an unsteady gait, nausea and vomiting, even loss of consciousness and retinal haemorrhaging. At 19,341 ft (5,895 m) Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, it’s also a killer. A study between 1996 and 2003 revealed that in just those years alone 25 people died on the mountain, 14 of those from altitude sickness. Every year approximately 1,000 people a year are evacuated whilst attempting the climb.
It puts into context the feat achieved by Jennifer Lonergan and a hardy bunch of friends who successfully tackled the climb for charity. Sadly Jen is no stranger to the harsh realities of struggling minds and weakened bodies. She lost her brother Anthony to suicide and her baby daughter was diagnosed with the genetic condition Phenylketonuria, or PKU, as a newborn in 2006.
PKU is a genetic disorder of the metabolism which without treatment can lead to a variety of life-shortening mental and development problems including seizures. Now healthy, her daughter benefited from treatment at the Willink Unit of the Royal Manchester Children’s hospital. It had received funding from the charity the Gem Appeal, itself the creation of a mother who’d lost her two young sons.
“I wanted to give something back,” says Jen. “Having been through it with my own daughter I thought, what can I do to help other families? We hope that the money raised by our challenge will help towards the purchase of a new machine to help save little lives.”
Mind is another charity which has a deep personal connection to Jen. “I lost my brother Anthony to suicide, it’s the hardest thing we’ve ever had to deal with as a family. Sadly it’s not uncommon.”
Jen is the wife of former Preston goalkeeper Andrew Lonergan. Joining her on the trek team were Laura Wheater, wife of Bolton defender David, and Jade Sharp, the wife of Sheffield United’s Billy.
As the main instigator for the trek Jen said she really felt the pressure: “I was so nervous about not making it because I took my brothers ashes and some pebbles that his children and my children had written on for him – which I then left at the top. That final trek to the top was just one foot in front of the other. It was relentless.”
Jen just focused on the light of her guide as they set off at midnight. It would be an eight hour trek to the summit.
This coming after just a three-and-a-half-hour rest at base camp, which had itself taken six hours to get to.
“Once we reached the top, there was just enough time to take a few photos before it was another six hour trek back down. It sounds ridiculous, but I’d not even thought about the trek back down. The altitude and the cold is so dangerous for the body, the guides only let you stay at the peak for a brief moment,” says Jen.
However, despite the feelings of altitude sickness or perhaps because of it, she says it felt like an ‘epiphany’ at the summit. “It was a clear day, you could see the clouds far down below you, even the curvature of the earth. The sunrise was just something else. Hard to appreciate at that moment because we were all so ill.”
Jen described that trek back down as ‘worse than childbirth’: “We were all vomiting, and at one point I fell on the rocks and started to go to sleep because I was so tired. I don’t think I’ll ever go up another mountain again.”
Their heroic efforts have so far raised an impressive £30,000 and they are hoping for more through other events including a golf day.
“A lot of people who have donated have also messaged with their own personal stories,” says Jen. “I wanted to do the trek for people like that. If what we do helps to save even one life it will be such a wonderful feeling to know we’ve given something back.”
To donate or to find out more information on the two charities, the Gem Appeal and Mind, please go to: www.250kilimanjaro.co.uk
