Donna Stanners to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Help for Heroes

Donna Stanners and Paul Livesey

Donna Stanners is planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Help for Heroes.

Donna, of Bertha Road, Newbold, is training to climb the mountain next year and is looking to raise around £4,000 for the charity.

She said: “People always ask me why Kilimanjaro and I don't know the answer, I've done small runs and long walks, so a climb has got to be the next thing right? But on a serious note I've always wanted to climb a mountain and Kilimanjaro is the highest free standing mountain in the world.”

Donna has chosen Help for Heroes as her charity of choice as her dad was in the army for 15 years. He served in the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment and is described by Donna as “my inspiration”.

Donna will be climbing the mountain with her brother Paul Livesey. Donna persuaded her brother to do the climb after inundating him with emails and text messages. She said: “When I came up with this mad idea of climbing Kilimanjaro, I was talking to Paul about it. He seemed interested so over the next week or two I inundated him with emails and text messages with information, he was reading it then he started sending me more information back. He phoned me up and said let's do it, let's climb Kilimanjaro. There was no stopping us then. I wouldn't say my brother took much persuading - we are both as mad as each other.”

Training has begun for the climb with Donna taking to the gym.

Donna said: “The weather is not the best at the moment so I'm doing most of my training in the gym, I book in every four to six weeks for my program change. At the moment my program consists of cardio work and weights, I go to the gym three/four times a week and my program is two hours long.”

Donna is not new to fundraising and has completed Race for Life events, the Manchester 10k, the Shine Walk, the Trans Pennine Challenge and the Three Peaks of Yorkshire Challenge. Having already raised £1,760, Donna hopes to beat her target of £4,000.

She added: “I want to raise £4,000 for Help for Heroes. I've already raised £1,760 so I'm hoping to smash that target.”

Anyone wishing to sponsor Donna can do so by visiting:

www.bmycharity.com/DonnasKilimanjarochallenge