Kilimanjaro challenge for Rod

Now Rod Bailey is ready for a new challenge - he wants to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

It's been three years since he trekked to Machu Picchu in Peru but now Rod is ready to hit the heights once more having been inspired by the BBC Red Nose team which climbed Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief.

As manager of the Cancer Research UK shop in Western Road, Rod has recently resigned as chair of Relay For Life, the fundraising community event launched locally last summer, in order to concentrate on this latest challenge.

"I have been thinking about this for the last year or so at least - it was either going to be Everest base camp or Kilimanjaro.

"To be perfectly honest, seeing the Red Nose team climbing Kilimanjaro really decided it for me and I thought this would be the thing for me to do. In Peru we had these massive sheer drops everywhere, so that was challenging, but this is more of a relentless climb, more of a battle against the altitude sickness that you can suffer."

Rod understands that 30 percent of climber don't manage to get to the very top which at nearly 6,000 meters is the highest he has ever attempted.

"In Peru we got to 4,600 meters up on the penultimate night and we then made a charge for the pinnacle which is 5,900 high, and then you head back the same day. But I remember that night before we were due to go to the highest point about 12 of our group had to go back down because they were suffering altitude sickness overnight. The rest of us carried on...It was absolutely beautiful up at the top."

Since then Rod has also trekked through Vietnam, and walked through the mountains between South China and North Vietnam, staying with Hmong villagers on the way living in stilt houses.

Rod has worked for Cancer Research Uk in Bexhill for almost 20 years and was inspired to do so by the death of a friend, John Grey.

"He was the first person I really knew who died of cancer. He was so strong - he arranged his own funeral and everything else. When I thought about what I would like to do with my life, this came up and it seemed the right thing to do. Since then sadly people even closer to me than that have died of cancer, and it reinforced my desire to keep working and keep raising money."

If Rod is to climb Mount Kilimanjaro he has first to raise 4,000 but has decided to make his personal target 5,000. He is already thinking up events to help him on his way, and has plans to walk around Bewl Walk on June 21, with supporters each raising 100 in sponsorship money.

If you would like to take part, or sponsor Rod directly, please visit him in the shop in Western Road or call him on 07986 536379.