Scaling heights for good cause

Gerard, a part time postman and Irish History and Politics student at Magee, tackled the African mountain along with his friends Paul Murtagh and Kevin O'Hanlon in aid of Cancer Research UK.

30-year-old Gerard, who is from Lurgan, along with Craigavon man Paul and Kevin, who is originally from Craigavon but now living in Scotland, succeeded in raising 2,708 for the cancer charity.

Gerard said: "I do charity events near enough every year. I always pick a different charity.

"I love a big challenge and they don't come much bigger than this.

He continued: "The three of us all made it to the top as you can see from the picture.

"You could be the fittest guy in the world but if you can't handle the altitude you're not going to make it. We got a few headaches, but other people were much worse. People were being sick and had to turn back."

Gerard said: "It takes four days to get to 4,600 metres. Once you're there you leave at midnight and it takes eight hours to get to the summit (5,895 metres).

"It was absolutely freezing the whole way up. We could only stay there for 15 minutes to get pictures.

"Coming back down all our energy came back. Me and Paul started to run."

The Lurgan man commented: "The route down only takes a day and a half. The way up took four and a half days.

You start off in tropical rainforests and go through shrubs and then it just turns to gravel. There's ice caps at the top. I didn't imagine that in Africa."

Gerard thanked Doreen Sands of Melt, Conor Compston of the Vintage, Bernie Chuong and Paula Conlan of Chuong's Welcome and his sister Laura Martin for going that extra mile with the fundraising.

He also thanked everyone who sponsored him.

He's already planning his next charity venture with cycling across Spain top of the list.