The following article was published in the April edition of ‘The Horn’, Save the Rhino’s monthly magazine.

Save the rhino, save the cheerleader

That was the subject heading of the email that I sent out to my entire address book after deciding that what I needed for 2010 was a challenge and that challenge should come in the shape of scaling Africa’s highest peak for Save the Rhino.

Somewhat predictably, the affirmative answers came only from the gutsiest in my circle; the competitive cheerleaders. Already Guinness World Record holders and National Champions, we were no strangers to the ‘no pain, no gain’ maxim but Kili – or the push for Kili would prove to be our greatest challenge yet.

Fundraising for something like this takes up a lot of time and energy and as only recent converts to the Rhino cause, we had to work hard to convince our nearest and dearest that ‘Rodney’ as I had christened all rhinos by this point, was indeed in danger and yes was very much worth saving. Of course it wouldn’t be until almost five months later when we visited Mkomazi post climb that we would see for ourselves just how much the funds are needed for this amazing project.

Sitting in the company of Tony and Lucy Fitzjohn, hearing and seeing for ourselves the very real and sometimes dangerous struggle they go through for these amazing creatures survival, it suddenly didn’t feel like nearly enough.

Six cheerleaders left London on 19^th February for an adventure on Kilimanjaro for Save the Rhino. Four summated, one reached Gilman’s Point and another was so severely affected by Altitude Sickness that they were told they could not continue with the climb. We could not have achieved all we did if not for the porters from Summits Africa nor without the support from Save the Rhino.

Next challenge? Something about trekking in South Africa?

I’d love to say I have a Rhino in mind but that just wouldn’t be true.

In the interest of keeping things – er – interesting though, I am going to name all the Rhino’s ‘Rodney’ from here on.

This is what I imagine Rodney to look like.

I’ll be writing, sporadically no doubt, about my quest to save Rodders on my blog here.

My main priority is to keep Rodney happy and free from fear of being hunted for his horn and flesh. In doing so lots of other great things will happen for Rodney, his friends and family and the people who live around him.

It’s a big task though so it feels fitting that in order to do it, I’m climbing this:

Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa. Lovely isn’t it? It’s also very high and quite a steep afternoon hike. That’s where the ‘Adventurer’ bit comes in.

I leave in approximately 126 days and need to raise over £3,700. If you could all look down the back of your sofa and send me the spare change, that’d be great. If you feel so inclined, please do the same with your pockets. All sponsorship is being collected here.

This blog is about the next 18 weeks. A place for me to document the pathway between me deciding to do this (today) and me getting there (in February 2010). Mountain or no, that’s a steep climb in itself. As you will see.

Oh and did I mention you can sponsor me here?