AN 18-year-old student is climbing the world’s highest freestanding mountain to help bring clean water and safe toilets to communities in Kenya.
Katie Rose, who is from Halstead and now studies natural sciences at Nottingham University, will climb Mount Kilimanjaro with charity Dig Deep later this summer.
Dig Deep works in Bomet County, Kenya, where two in three people don’t have clean water and over half lack safe toilets.
Representatives from the charity visited Katie’s university, where they recruit students to take on the fundraising challenge and talk about their work.
“It really inspired me,” Katie said. “If I can try and help, that’s a good thing to do.”
The six-day trek will take Katie and a group of around 15 students from rainforest trails up to the summit where night temperatures are as low as -18C.
On the day they climb to the peak, they will be on the move for around 16 hours and see the sunrise over Kenya.
Katie turns 19 the day before she flies out on August 26 and feels this trip is a chance to make a tangible difference.
So far, she’s raised £2,787 towards her £2,990 fundraising goal.
Katie also lives with coeliac disease and plans to show people that those with the autoimmune condition can still accomplish tough challenges.
“Climbing Kilimanjaro is quite a personal challenge – you need a lot of resilience,” she said.
“I’d quite like to be able to say I’ve actually done it. If I can climb Kilimanjaro with coeliac disease as well, I can still do hard challenges even with that setting me back.
“People think coeliac disease is just gluten free, but it affects your whole life. To do it with coeliac disease is an extra challenge in itself.
“I want to raise awareness for what it is. It can’t just stop you from doing other things like people typically would do.”
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She is a former pupil of Holy Trinity Primary School and The Ramsey Academy, where she was head girl.
Her former primary school recently held a bake sale to support her as part of their Water Aid school project.
Katie then visited the pupils to thank them and talk about her climb, where they enjoyed asking her questions and trying on her kit.
Katie said: “I’m excited, at the same time very nerve wracking because it’s such a big challenge.
“It’s fundraising for a good cause to help make sure pepe in Kenya have access to safe toilets and hygiene, and all the things we take for granted.”
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