Christmas updates

First off, Merry Christmas and a happy new years to everyone supporting us on this trip...

We are having donations coming in most days and the funding is going well....so far we are on a grand total of and £2500 approx with more rolling in daily.

A GREAT amount but we are not done just yet...

Anyway a few updates on what we have been up to...

Yet more trips to the gym,climbing,running, cycling etc

Got our visas sorted

Had jabs for yellow fever among a few others

Got the anti Malarial sorted

So only a few other things to get sorted nearer the time....

We have been speaking to a few people who have done this in the recent past and they have given us a few tips to make the huge challenge that bit much more bearable.

Now to thank a few notable donations:

Reid & Dean at the Eastbourse half marathon raised £100

The Side Door Jazz Club at the Afton Hotel in Eastbourne again raised £100

And the Lakeman family raised £110...

Thanks so much for your support and lets really get the news out there and go for a big last drive before our trip at the start of Feb..

Thanks SO SO much,

Tim and Jacob Gibbins

Updates...

Right another update on our progress with everything "Blind Summit 2011"

We have been busy fundraising non stop since we started this whole operation and now have a total of money raised around the £1500 mark which is amazing.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank from the bottom of our hearts everyone who has already donated, your really making a difference both to BRPS the charity who support everyone who has this disease and also my dad who is doing incredibly well and has given up smoking, started the gym, going on 10 mile + walks on Dartmoor weekly and is really going to make this a success.

But the £1500 we have already raised is only part of the total we hope to raise, so keep on spreading the word and telling people about our trek and we can hopefully carry on the way we have been going and the donations will carry on coming in as they have been.



and also another photo taken today of the 2 of us to send to BRPS for use in there news letter.

Thanks Tim and Jacob

Updates...

Right I know this blog may not be getting updated daily but things are still going ahead and still going well.

We have made the local paper, had a load more donations, its all going great.

First off we have given donation forms ( hard paper forms ) in to a few local shops in Tavistock so if you don't have access to the justgiving page then you can still support us.

They can be found in:

Crebers, howels, palmers, Sisters hairdressers, Rhyme and Time and with Ian White the clock maker in the market...

We have also had a few very generous donations from a few people in person ( so arnt mentioned on the JustGiving page ) so We would like to thank them here as well...

First off Bill Brightwell an old family friend donated £150 pounds!

As did Rev R.C. Gibbins again £150

and again his wife Mrs O.R. Gibbins also donated £150

This is amazing and both myself and my father would like to thank them so much...

Mr and Mrs Gibbins also held a sale with there local church and raised another £250 which is amazing and truly generous.

Bringing our total amount of donations to over £1000 already!

This is amazing but still we have a long way to go, so spread the word and help me help my dad to get to the top of Africa!

Thanks

Jacob

Steven frys twitter and contact details...

A week or so ago One of my friends tipped me off that Mr Fry supports charitys and things just like our trek by twittering them to his 1.8 million followers... and on sunday morning just gone our justgiving page made it on there. Thanks So much Steven, really great what you do.

Also contact emails for both me and my dad incase you want to contact either of us for whatever reason.

Mine (Jacob) JacobGibbins@Gmail.com

My dads (Tim) TimGib@tiscali.co.uk

Thanks a lot and carry on spreading the word! we are at around £500!

New Poster for our trip

We have just finished making a new poster to help get the word out about our trip in Feb...

Please link it around, print it out, put it up and spread the word...

Thanks Tim and jacob

The JustGiving.com Page

We Have now set up on the JustGiving.com site so you can make fast, easy donations to our Trek...

Please find our page here, Click the blue button below:



Spread the word, put it on your Twitter, Facebook etc we need to get the word out far and wide.

Thanks Everyone and let get this done!

What this is all about...

A few months ago I was working down in the Alps photographing the world MTB race series( my site www.JacobGibbins.co.uk ) we drove right through the highest mountain in western Europe Mont Blanc, and looking at it from down on the road I thought I want to get up that.

I come home a few weeks later, and tell my dad who used to, back in his day be an avid hill walker and climber...he said 4 simple words that made me think hard.

Take me with you.

You may think so what ? but when I tell you my dad is registered as blind, and has lost the majority of his sight it becomes a bit more of a task.

He has a genetic disease called RP which affects both him and his sister...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retinitis_pigmentosa


www.brps.org.uk



Which in short is killing his retina from the out in, and will, in the not so distant future close up all together. Not having sight from birth must be horrible, but loosing it after 50 years of well lived life, knowing what your missing I can imagine being harder...

So we gave it some thought and said what the hell. Looked in to it all and Mont Blanc was too hard, to much climbing, to busy, to little chance of getting to the top with weather etc, so after some umming and arring, we went for the next best ( and bigger ) thing,Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.

We have now started the Ball rolling, and it is 110% on.

We go over there and make our summit attempt on the 17th – 27th February 2011, on the Lemosho Route...and it will be the experience of a life time.

And some of the best father and son bonding you can do and that very few people manage to do.

He has dreamed of climbing one of the big mountains of the world since he was my age, and some 40 years on, with the blue badge and white stick we are going to make it happen with every ones kind support.

I will be setting up accounts on www.justgiving.com in the next 24 hours and we will start to try and get this Expedition out there to as many eye balls as we can and try and raise a lot of money and exposure for RP

Thanks a lot Jacob and Tim Gibbins