 | Rene’e Aziz Ahmad is a Civil Engineer & Breast Cancer Survivor. Rene’e discovered she had breast cancer at the age of 40 years. |
My Kilimanjaro Adventure
Rene’e Conquers Mt Kilimanjaro after Battling Breast Cancer
By Rene’e Aziz Ahmad, Breast Cancer Survivor It is 9:45 a.m. on the 26th of January 2005, and I am standing at Uhuru Peak on Mount Kilimanjaro. After four and a half days of trekking through forest, moorland and alpine desert, I have finally reached the summit of the mountain they call the “Roof of Africa”. Words cannot describe how good I feel. My adventure began in earnest a little over a year ago when some friends invited me to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with them. At the time, I was struggling to regain some semblance of my former self after undergoing treatments for breast cancer that included a mastectomy followed by six months of chemotherapy and another five weeks of radiotherapy. By the end of it all, my weight had soared to an all-time high of 78kg and I could not walk up a single flight of stairs without collapsing in a breathless heap. A year of working out at my local gym saw hardly any improvement. So I decided to take up the challenge and change my fitness goal from “I want to lose 20kg” to “I want to climb the highest free-standing mountain in the world”! I spent the next year seriously training, not just to lose weight, but also to build up my strength and stamina, both physical and mental. Slowly, my general condition improved as I discovered the joys of step aerobics, kick-boxing and weight training! Finally, on 18 January 2005, feeling stronger and fitter than I had felt in a long time, I set off for Tanzania with six colleagues to climb what I now fondly referred to as “my mountain”. On 22 January 2005, we began our trek along the 100km Machame Route, walking for six to nine hours each day. We chose this route because it promised spectacular views of the mountain and its surroundings and we were not disappointed. It got colder as we climbed higher and we experienced a couple of hailstorms along the way. On the third day, some of us began to feel the effects of the altitude, complaining of headaches, nausea and a general lack of energy. The terrain became more rugged and barren as we entered the desert zone on the fourth day, and the steep trail and thin air made walking more difficult, slowing us down considerably as we continued steadily up the mountain. We reached the last camp at Barafu in the late evening on 25 January 2005 and after dinner and a short rest, we began our Summit Attempt at midnight. Lack of sleep combined with the physical exhaustion of the day before’s trek have taken their toll and made progress slow. I have managed to keep going simply by putting one foot in front of the other and not looking up too often to see where I am!
Finally, it is 9:45 a.m. on the 26th of January 2005, and I have overcome cold, fatigue and extreme altitude to reach Uhuru Peak, at 5,895 meters, the highest point on Mount Kilimanjaro and in all of Africa. Way to go Rene’e! | 
