First Capital Connect’s Keith Spalding Climbs Kilimanjaro for Children’s Hospice

Keith Spalding, a revenue manager at First Capital Connect, has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise £2,500 for East Anglia Children’s Hospices (EACH).

Keith, who lives near Ipswich, along with his brother and 13 others left the UK on 27th December and landed in Kilimanjaro Airport, Tanzania, to start his sponsored climb. The hike took Keith and his party 5 days in total to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro, which at 19,340ft high is the highest mountain in Africa.

Keith has smashed his personal target of £1,500 having raised over £2,500 to date for EACH, a charity based in East Anglia which cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions. They deliver a range of children’s hospice care services to families in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and North Essex, with hospices in Cambridge, Ipswich, and Norwich. FCC’s parent company FirstGroup has pledged £1,000; on top of the £1,600 Keith raised taking the total to over £2,600.

Speaking upon his return from Kilimanjaro, Keith said:

“Following months of training it was an amazing experience to arrive in Tanzania and finally start climbing Kilimanjaro. After 5 days of hiking and facing temperatures as low as -15c we reached the summit, which was a fantastic (but exhausting) feeling.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank those that have sponsored me and East Anglia Children’s Hospices. They do amazing work in East Anglia and I am very proud to have beaten my target.”