Everest mission raises £10k for cancer centre
TWO Swansea brothers have smashed their fundraising target of £10,000 after climbing to Everest base camp in aid of the city’s Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre that looked after their late mother.
David and Daniel Williams, originally from Cefncraigparc in Clydach, scaled the base of the world’s highest peak along with their friend Tomasz Szymczak and dubbed themselves Three Men and a Mountain.
Their mother Christine passed away from cancer in June, 2014 aged 60.
In November last year the trio set off to tackle a daunting climbing challenge – the South Base Camp of Everest in Nepal at an altitude of 5,364m.
It was journey not only in memory of the Williams brothers’ mother but also to the friends and family Tomasz had lost too.
The base camp expedition, which took 13 days, raised almost £9,000 but the money has kept coming in over the past six months and has now tipped over the £10,000 mark.
David, a builder who now lives in Llangyfelach, and Daniel, a mechanic in Clydach, would wake up at 4.45am every day and walk up to 15km before work, scaling the hills above Clydach towards Ammanford, all in preparation for the challenge.
Tomasz would join them on the weekends to train.
Daniel, David and Tomasz have now presented a cheque for the final fundraising total of £10,272.94 to staff at Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre.
David said: “We are overwhelmed with the support and donations.
“From the bottom of our hearts, we can’t thank everyone enough, the people all around Swansea to the heart of Clydach, the support has been above and beyond touching.
“Our message is to always try and help people where you can because we never know when we may need help one day.
“We want to give a huge shout-out to everyone who sponsored us – so many people have been extremely generous – and a massive shout-out to all the businesses who sponsored us with their donations.”
He added: “Thanks also to all our families who have supported us all the way on this epic journey. Without their support it would not have been possible.
“Thanks also to our training partners, our sister Rachel Nicholas and very good friend and Tomasz’s wife Beata, who will no doubt be with us again for our next challenge.”
That next challenge will be to scale Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in August next year for charity.
David said: “Kilimanjaro is 19,341ft and has more extreme conditions than Everest. We will be sleeping only in tents as we climb and temperatures can drop to around -15°C.
“Kilimanjaro has a much lower success rate than climbing to Everest base camp, but with a good 12 months’ training, determination and willpower we will do it.”