THE GUTSY CHALLENGE – CLIMBING MT. KOSCIUSZKO – MARCH 26, 2021

Hi there!

You probably don’t know that the Gastro-Intestinal (GI) Cancer Institute is the only organization in Australia conducting clinical trials, for all GI cancers (basically anything to do with the digestive tract including oesophageal, stomach, pancreas, liver, and colorectal cancers). It’s OK, I didn’t either….

That fact became front of mind when mum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 8 months ago. Seriously, could 2020 have delivered any worse news?

So what do clinical trials aim to do? They research new ways to prevent, detect or treat disease with the goal to improve outcomes for diagnosed patients whilst being safe. Right now, most GI Cancer patients have a 5-year survival rate with only 50% surviving. For mum, our family pray that we will have those 1825 days and take each day with hope, thankful that chemo treatment today is maintaining her status quo and quality of life.

On March 26, I have decided to take part in the Mt Kosciuszko Gutsy Challenge trek to help raise vital funds for GI Cancer research.

And guess what? Alan is supposed to be hiking with me, but those who know him, know that realistically, he may be encouraging me from the sidelines yet in good faith will donate the first $1000. 

We would love to raise AUS $8 912 (see next paragraph for explanation) for this worthwhile cause and it’s going to encourage me to get back in shape after a year of Covid cooking and eating. So whether you can spare $10 or $200 it’s greatly appreciated and will only inspire me to get onto that treadmill and discovering Sydney as I hike the northern beaches. I will not let you down!

I will be climbing Mt Kosciuszko, Australia’s highest mountain at 2,228 m. For those accountants out there, you can do the math; the aim to raise AUS $8 912, that’s AUS $1 for every meter that will be climbed - ascending and descending for 2 persons.

When I climbed Kilimanjaro in 2012 (that’s another story) the ONLY other of  the World' s 7  Summits I considered climbing was Kosziuszko….and next month I have that chance…

Hope you can support this initiative!

My warmest thanks in advance,

Cathy