Drogheda men ready for climb

BY FI0NA MAGENNIS, Drogheda Independent - Friday January 23rd 2004

FOUR Drogheda men are preparing for the climb of a lifetime - as they take on the world's tallest 'free standing' mountain.

Michael Murphy from Five Oaks, Oliver Farrell, Ballypark, Declan McCann, Walshestown and Joe McKcnna, Moynalty will climb to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Boyne Fishermen's River Rescue and Recovery Service (BFRRS).

All four men were inspired to take part in the challenge as they are all involved with the Emergency Response Team (FlIT) at work, with Drogheda Concentrates, and were all impressed with the level of voluntary work done by local emergency services.

'The idea to support the BFRRS came about following our involvement with local emergency services personnel in our ERT training,' Michael explains.

All four of us were impressed with the level of voluntary commitment demonstrated by the people in the service and in addition to this, a number of families of fellow associates were touched by grief as a result of the death of loved ones who drowned in the area.'

The group first started to plan the expedition about 12 months ago and Michael himself organised the trip with a company in South Africa called Destination Africa who hire out the guides to you.

No stranger to staging major tests of physical strength in order to raise money for a worthy cause, Michael and Oliver have previously trekked through the Sahara desert in aid of the Dublin Simon Community in 2000.

'We do have some experience of this kind of thing and we are all fairly fit as a result of our work with the ERT here at work and we all do hillwalklng and things like that.'

All four are heavily involved in the community and have done fundraising work before; as well as the Sahara challenge, Michael and Oliver have also carried out fundraising some years ago for a new roof on the Drogheda Homeless Aid Shelter.

Declan is chairperson of his local soccer club in Walshestown and was involved in the fundraising for the purchase of the new football grounds there and he also works as the chairperson of Walshestown NS Parents Committee. Joe is chairperson of St Mary's Moynalty Credit Union and he is also on the finance committee of his local GAA club as well as having the title of joint author of the millennium book for Moynalty.

The four men will travel to Taiizania on February 13 and will take the Machame Route to the top. This is renowned as the most scenic and most beautiful route to the summit but it is also much more physically gruelling than any of the other routes.

The mountain is truly unique boasting huge expanses of land which include a rainforest, moor land, an alpine desert, snowfields and icecliffs all of which are located virtually three degrees south of the equator.

The average temperature at the foot of the mountain is between 25-30C while on the summit this can range from -10 to -20C.

The four have been training every second weekend over the past number of months In the Mourne, Wicklow and the Cooley mountains. 'We're ready for it at this stage, most of us would do a lot of hillwailking anyway so we would be used to hiking.'

He went on to praise Drogheda Concentrates, who are providing sponsorship for the trip, as well as a number of other local companies who are also supporting them in the venture.

A quiz night in aid of the expedition will take place on Friday, January 30 in the Westcourt Hotel. The cost is €5 per person and everyone is welcome to attend.

© Drogheda Independent