When Tom and I got back home, sponsorship
had reached £25,000 and by the end of the summer we had helped to
raise a grand total of £42,000. Not bad for what started as a
holiday! The money raised was used to buy the special chair as well
as a vehicle to transport Jack and the chair. The trust is
currently aiming to raise a further £14000 to purchase an exercise
bike with electrodes that attach to leg muscles to enable muscle
contraction.
I would like to say a big thank you to our tour leader Denise
McAvina who helped make it happen. "f it hadn't been for Denise's
leadership in deciding who should go up on the final night walk and
who shouldn't we might not have made it. It was my first trip to
that part of Africa, itself an education, and I found it very
moving and humbling to see how people really live. As for the trek
itself? The last night hike hits you like a tonne of bricks.
There's no real preparation you can do. But it hasn't put me off:
this year my wife and I are off to Machu Picchu. As for Tom, he
describes the climb "as an experience of a lifetime" and worth
every moment despite the blisters. He still reminisces about the
kind porter who carried flasks of mugs and tea to Gillman's Point
to revive the trekkers.
Jack came out of hospital at the beginning of Easter, just over
a year since the accident, but remains completely paralysed from
the neck down. Nurses have to live in with the family 24 hours a
day.
For further information about the Jack Firmin Trust, contact the
school directly on 020 8366 0035 or email StJohnsSc@aol.com. If you
would like to make a donation, please send a cheque made payable to
The Jack Firmin Trust c/o St John's Senior School, North Lodge, The
Ridgeway, Enfield, EN2 8BD.