African adventure to support caring nurses

African adventure to support caring nurses

20 July 2016

WHEN her beloved father passed away Stacey Murtagh wanted no ordinary fundraising challenge in his memory.

Instead she and her brother Jonathan hatched a plan to scale the mighty Mount Kilimanjaro as a tribute to their father’s incredible fight for life.

At 5,895 metres tall, the highest mountain in Africa has been known to send celebrity trekkers packing with its dizzying altitude sickness — but the Crossgar siblings are determined to take on the challenge and raise money for Maire Curie.

Stacey (33), currently working in Dubai as a marketing manager, said that Marie Curie nurses had spent just a few days with her dad John before he passed away in March 2014 but the impact was so huge she wanted to pay something back.

“They not only provided care and comfort for my dad but they also provided it for us as a family, I don’t know what we would have done without them,” she said.

“My dad was diagnosed in 2011 with fourth stage oesophageal cancer and was given six months to live. He had chemotherapy and it so happened his first chemo nurse was later his first Marie Curie nurse.

“He was given six months to live but the chemo did an amazing job and he lived for two-and-half years. He had made so much progress that the cancer had become a speck, very insignificant.”

Stacey explained that the personality of the nurses who attended her father was very important.

“Our first Marie Curie nurse that came was Heather, the first one to give dad his chemotherapy.

Because of the way Heather was with dad he was always joking with her.  There was always banter.”

It was a complete caring experience that Stacey described as “beautiful”.

“The Marie Curie nurses are so incredible, almost like they are earth angels,” she said.

A dedicated family man and joiner by trade, John was just 53 years-old when he died. As well as leaving his two children, he also left behind wife and childhood sweetheart Colette, who he met when he was just 13. Colette was 19 and John 20 when they married.

When John’s condition deteriorated Stacey said it was hard for them to watch the end of all hope for a quality of life.

“When dad was diagnosed we were shocked but we were positive,” she said. “We looked at alternatives with juicing and healthy eating as well as his treatment.

“We got a really strong father which gave us all two-and-a-half years.

“When dad died it was awful. Our world ended. There are days you think ‘what’s going on?’, ‘what am I doing?’ I think dad gives us strength. He never complained.

“We are quite a spiritual family and I believe that my dad is with me every day. I just very much believe there is another, a greater thing out there, and we all have to look after each other.”

Looking back Stacey said she and her 31 year-old brother, who also spends six months of the year working in Dubai, were grateful for the time the family got to spend with him towards the end.

“We were both very glad to have the opportunity to spend time with dad at home,” she said. “I am very, very fortunate. I am grateful for our nurses and our doctors who were incredible. We could not have done it without them.

“After dad died me and my brother said we would like do something to look back on as a family. We were thinking of doing some kind of fundraiser. I just thought we needed to do something quite big as what dad went through was unbelievable.

“For instance my best friend had testicular cancer and my dad would encourage him, write letters to him, really helping to give advice and support. 

“The mental attitude that my dad had got me and Jonathan thinking. Mount Kilimanjaro was not only a physical but a mental challenge.

“We are doing the climb as a group of 16 with the support of friends based in Dubai. All I did was set up a Whatsapp group and said to everyone ‘look, I am going to do this’. Others joined me and they have been inspirational and a support and some of them have been affected by someone with cancer.

“It’s going to be used to bring people together.

“I am really excited about it. We have our own Facebook page with tips and training and articles. One of girls sent something about training outside in the heat and humidity and how it is good for altitude training.

“The altitude sickness is going to hit us or it is not. It is also about mindset and overcoming that and trying to push through. Obviously if someone becomes very sick they will have to stand down but in the route we have chosen 85 per cent are successful.

“We will take six days to do the 5895 metres. I am health conscious. I train four or five times a week in the gym but I would not say I am a gym buddy.

“This really is about Marie Curie but obviously we are training as much as possible.

“People are doing so much fundraising these days but hopefully some people will see what we are doing and support us.

“You just don’t know when something like this can hit you, and without the support and care from Marie Curie nurses it would be an even more painful journey than it already is.”

Stacey and Jonathan’s group ‘Summits Wrong With Us’ have a Just Giving page and have raised 20 per cent of their £4,500 target. Donations can be made at: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/summitswrongwithus