The MacRitchie family will be doing a nine-day trek up Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa at 19,300 feet, as a major fundraiser this month for juvenile diabetes.
Parents are not usually allowed on the trip, but in this case Dr. Donald MacRitchie is the doctor on duty, supervising the team of 20, most who have diabetes. Donald is accompanied by his wife Elizabeth and son Iain, 27, who's had diabetes since he was a year old.
"He's the main reason we're so very keenly involved," said mom Elizabeth. "We sure would be happy to know that there would be a cure one of these days."
Lots of research has been done that has brought about insulin, pumps and testers, said Elizabeth, but it is all invasive and costly. It would be nice to at least have a poke-free system, she added.
"This is a project where a group of young people who have diabetes and are in their 20s and 30s, are climbing the mountain to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation," said Elizabeth. "All the funds raised go to research, which is an awesome commitment of this foundation and it's very well known and well recognized. We've done this before. We were at Machu Picchu three years ago with a group of these young people."
Participants must incur all costs for the trip and 100 per cent of the funds raised go to the foundation, said Elizabeth.
"Proving that people with diabetes can do remarkable adventurous things is a wonderful, inspiring thing to do. We're taking a long route up," said Elizabeth. "The nine-day trek is supposed to be better for acclimatization because at over 10,000 feet -- it doesn't matter who you are, a person with diabetes or not -- there's a little less oxygen at the higher levels and you can get altitude sickness."
There's no training for that and there's not much you can do to prevent it other than take diamox, she added.
"But you go with the hope that you're well trained for the basic physical part of it and hope your body can accommodate the more rare level of oxygen," said Elizabeth. There's also a concern about the testers diabetics use. They need oxygen to work so it's important people get an accurate reading even when they are at higher level of elevation, she noted.
"The trip is a seven day hike up, two days down," Elizabeth said. "We have a guide and porters who assist along the way, including cooking our meals, which I know I'm going to really enjoy. We still had to make sure that we're in good physical shape because this is a lot like stair climbing with a lot of elevation gain."
To give to the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, visit www.jdrf.org and donate in the name of JDRF Team 1.
