NEWS & UPDATES Trek Kilimanjaro
In January 2016, an international team will take part in the biggest RCOG ‘Challenge Event’ to date: an ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for women’s health worldwide. Among them will be Paul Fogarty, Senior Vice President, Global Health. Paul talks to us about the reasons behind the climb and his motivations.
What will the climb involve? Over 50 of us, of various ages, fitness levels and backgrounds, will spend seven nights on the hard ground, endure 20-below-zero conditions and battle altitude sickness. This will culminate in a tiring 15-hour push to reach Kilimanjaro’s 5,895m summit with one common goal in mind: to raise as much money as possible for women’s health.
Tell us about the projects you’re fundraising for Improving women’s health care not only in the UK but on a global scale is a critical objective of the RCOG. As Senior Vice President, Global Health, I am humbled and proud of our far-reaching global health projects, such as our ‘Excellence in: Obstetric Skills’ course, which is currently being rolled out in Uganda. Here we have partnered with Kitovu Health Care Complex to train rural healthcare workers in emergency obstetric skills and fistula prevention. We are also preparing our ‘Excellence in: Essential Gynaecological Skills’ course, focusing on conditions that cause the greatest burden to women’s wellbeing, including heavy menstrual bleeding, sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy spacing. These are amenable to intervention within the
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resources of the local healthcare infrastructure in under-resourced countries.
Why this particular challenge? Kilimanjaro, ‘the roof of Africa’, is the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. It is in north-west Tanzania, a region where the RCOG’s ‘Leading Safe Choices’ programme is being piloted. Leading Safe Choices aims to increase skills, improve quality and raise the professional standing of reproductive healthcare professionals in Tanzania and South Africa. (See page 6 – Leading Safe Choices article.) We are extremely excited about the potential impact of this RCOG global health project.
Why is the support needed? The RCOG can only carry out its global health work through generous external support. It is essential that this work is properly funded so that we can continue to make a real impact on women’s health around the world. This is why I have decided to make a personal contribution by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with Team RCOG. We hope to collectively raise £20,000 by our efforts. I implore our friends, colleagues and peers to pity our tired, post-on-call trips to the gym over the next few months and
support our endeavour with donations for this very worthy cause. That’s why I’m determined to reach the top of Kilimanjaro. Please generously support a cause that I know we’re all behind: https://
mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/paulfogartyrcog,
What’s motivating you? Although the training is tough going and the week of climbing will be even worse, I can’t imagine it is anything like the constant challenges women have to face in their daily life because of poor-quality healthcare provision: the social exclusion that comes with fistula; the very real risk of eclampsia, sepsis and haemorrhage during childbirth; and limited control over your body’s next pregnancy, to name a few.
You too can raise money for women’s health globally by being part of #TeamRCOG in 2016. We have obtained charity places in some high-profile sporting events including: • Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100: Cycle the 100 mile bike ride on Sunday 31 July 2016
• Edinburgh marathon festival: Run one of the distance races on 28-29 May 2016
• Bournemouth marathon festival: Run one of the distance races on 1-2 October 2016
For further information, please contact Megan McLaren, RCOG Development Assistant, at
mmclaren@rcog.org.uk or call +44 20 7772 6414.
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