Team Member Profile - Jean-Luc Priez

Sex - Male
Age - 53
Star Sign - Cancer - The Crab , Water
Nationality - French

Profession - Chief Executive of Lench's Trust.

After a career in the NHS both in London and in Gloucestershire Jean-Luc managed a hospice in the Cotswold's for 10 years, before joining Lench's Trust in 2006.

Interests -Born in Le Mans (France) in 1956 and has been living in the UK since 1982!

"I came over partly because I was out of a job after university and partly because I was in admiration for the NHS. It took me 7 years to get a job there but perseverance paid…

I have a passion for travelling abroad – Africa, North & South America – and trekking up mountains, having done Mt Toubkal in Morocco and Mt Kinabalu in Asia. Kilimanjaro is a challenge unfulfilled… having attempted it in 1999 but succumbing to exhaustion.

I live and LOVE Birmingham… " - Jean-Luc

Team Member Profile - Stuart Cusworth

Sex - Male
Age - 23
Star Sign - Aries - The Ram , Fire
Marital Status - Single
Nationality - British

Profession - Buyer of Golf equipment for four years for a leisure firm, travelling all over the World meeting suppliers and gaining and learning as much as he can for the future. He will be joining the Royal Navy in September later this year, eventually training to become an Officer specialising in Logistics.

Interests - He is football mad and supports Newcastle. He Loves the great outdoors and playing sports. He ran the London Marathon last year and the Great North Run and raised £10,000 with his friend for charity. Stuart loves a challenge..

Tamworth In Arden - Idyllic, Quaint

Jean-Luc emailed everyone on Friday to ask if we fancied another walk over the weekend. I need to build up more endurance so I said yes as long as I was back in Brum for 5pm. So we agreed to meet at "The Green" in front of the Parish Church in Tamworth In Arden at 1pm on Sunday.

I wasn't quite sure who would turn up but Qasim let me know on Saturday that he would be there.

I arrived at the allotted time and parked on a side road and changed into my walking gear and grabbed my camera before making my way to the church. Jean-Luc accompanied by Stuart was parking up just as I reached The Green. We exchanged greetings and I left them to get changed while I took a short stroll around the village.

The centre of the village looked magnificent and the The Green turned out to be a lush grass island complete with elegant round picnic tables positioned directly opposite the Church. On the adjacent side was a fabulous pub called The Bell Inn. This also doubled as a boutique hotel and the restaurant menu looked delicious. It was lunch time and it was obviously a popular place to meet and eat judging from the crowd spilling out the door and the array of expensive cars parked outside - Mercs, Aston Martin, Porche....

Qasim phoned to say he was 5 minutes away and I let Jean-Luc and Stuart know and I told them that I was going for a short exploratory walk to take some pictures and I would meet them on the Green ten minutes later. It was a lovely warm sunny day and strolling around the church and the cemetery was quite soothing. The scenery in and around the church was amazing and the back of the church opened out onto some fabulous countryside.

I made my way back to the others , and Qasim had just arrived. He had bought along a friend that was staying with him and who loved country walks. We made introductions and commenced our trek. Stuart was navigating this time and we set off with him in the lead, guide book in hand. He did explain that he might be slightly deaf as he was listening to the Aston Villa game through his earpiece - as you may have guessed Stuart is an avid football fan.

Just beyond the church we turned right and walked into the entrance of Uberslade Farm Park and walked along a beautiful Boulevard lined on each side with enormous conifers standing majestically tall along a half mile stretch of tarmac road.

To be continued...

So you think you know it all? Prove it !! for charity

Jean-Luc has organised a charity quiz night on 11th May 2010. This sounds like fun , so get your mates together, think of a name for your team of four and register with Jean-Luc by phone on 0121 455 8808 or email jean-lucp@lenchs-trust.co.uk for the quiz night. There is a cash bar on the evening and the £10 per person price includes dinner.

The event is at 8pm at The Garden House, 160 Hagley Road, Birmingham

Remember it's all for a good cause and you are helping to raise money to build sheltered housing for the elderly in Birmingham for those who cannot afford it.. so do give us and them your support.

Awe Inspiring !!

Qasim sent me an email today with two attachments and a note : "Hi guys,

A business contact sent me these pictures. His parents did Kilimanjaro in 1951. I’m sure you will agree they are amazing !

Enky "

I have to say when I opened up the files and saw the pictures, I was in awe of the scene and even more determined to get to the top.. Thanks Qasim.

William Lench Court - Rises from the ground

Jean-Luc sent me a picture of the progress at William Lench Court. He also told me about how relieved he was to have finally completed his course of inoculations with his last jab - the Yellow Fever. Apparently it was painless and he had not even realized that he had been inoculated until after the event- clever nurse. No side effects so far, but apparently the vaccine starts to kick in after 10 days.

You can see the Brick Laying Ceremony performed by Cllr Len Clark in presence of Tim Cuthbertson who is a Trustee of the Lench's Trust.

I think the Councillor is asking about where the mortar is.There is some real grafting going on in the background. They better get a move on if they are going to finish the building on time !!

AMS, HAPE, HACE – or Altitude sickness

I have been reading up on forms of Altitude Sickness. The relevant acronyms sounded like STD's lol

AMS – Altitude Mountain Sickness – mild ;-( decent will cure this.
HAPE – High Altitude Pulmonary Edema – very bad :-((( decent quickly recommended.
HACE – High Altitude Cerebral Edema – very, very bad :-(((((( immediate medical attention and decent immediately recommended.

The statistics show that a third of people who climb Kilimanjaro fail to make it to the top because of altitude sickness. More people fail to reach the top because of altitude sickness rather than strength or stamina. We intend to be in the two thirds that will be popping champagne at the top !!.

Kilimanjaro is 19,710 feet high. If you are in a plane at this altitude and the cabin pressure were to reduce to that outside the plane, without breathing apparatus you would lose consciousness in four minutes and die!! The air is too thin. If however you allow your body to gradually adjust (acclimatise) to the air pressure you can live for several days. This is why the local guides always say to their charges for the ascent Pole Pole – which in Swahili means Slowly Slowly. If we ascend slowly and allow our bodies to acclimatise we should be fine. Other ways that help to adapt and avoid AMS are to eat regularly and keep energy levels up to avoid fatigue and to keep hydrated by drinking every few minutes.One should also keep warm to avoid using up energy that will be spent on keeping the body warm. The mountain does not respect age or fitness and people from the age of 14 to 87, and some disabled climbers have made it to the summit by being sensible.

If our bodies fail to adapt we may face some of the symptoms of altitude sickness. These include having a thumping, blinding headache, nausea and/or vomiting. Mild AMS can be treated with the usual headache and nausea remedies. If AMS gets worse one will be unable to sleep, lack appetite, be out of breath. If it gets to a stage where the climber cannot walk 10m in a straight line, is mentally confused, has slurred speech, or has a resting heartbeat over 130 it’s over and AMS will be too much , the climber will have to turn back. Like Jean-Luc and Patrica during their ascent ten years earlier, if you get sick, or cold symptoms, or are just too weak, you are buggered and will have to abort.

I’m sure this will not happen to our group but remember the 5P rule (how can you forget hehehe) it’s good to know what to look out for.

The 5 P rule

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance - the 5P Rule - or if you are a Navy SEAL or in the SAS you may quote the 6P rule - Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. In light of what we are going to do I think I prefer the latter.

It is a lovely day today so I thought I would pop out and start ticking off some of the things on my packing list. So Jinny and I popped down to the local shopping complex at about 10:30 . Usually she is not out of bed by this time on a Sunday, but one thing she would die for is a Starbucks and so she was up for it. We popped into Walsall and nipped into TK Maxx to check out the outdoor section. This is where Jinny found my walking poles last week.

I picked up an adjustable head torch for £4.99 ( check! ).This would be required for the last day of our ascent when we will be getting up at midnight to make it to the summit for sunrise. I also looked at the outdoor jackets but I didn't fancy the styles they had in stock. I did find a set of VAUDE thermal underwear and vests (check) especially designed for "mountaineering, ski touring, climbing, Nordic walking, alpine skiing" £24.99 and £29.99 respectively.

You must be off your rocker paying that amount, I hear you all holler. Quite rightly so, I'm not one to be unnecessarily extravagant, but when you take into account the fact that at the summit it is going to be so cold (and I hate the cold) that water bottles will freeze, batteries will die, we will be sleeping in tents, we may well be sweating like mad, smelly, it could be wet or snowing or we could be in freezing blizzards, I am taking no chances... only proper equipment will do.

The underwear are designed exactly for this sort of extreme environment and the special material is based on a warm merino wool composite fabric that has natural deodorising and quick drying properties plus a thermo-regulating effect. The flat seams will lie smoothly against the skin without causing pressure points and chafe marks - useful when you think how long I may be wearing them along with a back-pack.

Having paid, we popped into Starbucks where I got a delicious Caramel Coffee Frap and Jinny got a Caramel Hot Chocolate (no whip) to go..

Team Meeting - Mon 13-4-2010

We are really struggling to get everyone in one place. I don't even think we have managed to have a single occasion where we have all been in one place or even been on a single training / trekking session together. It will happen I'm sure and I'll nail the team photo.

Jean-Luc, myself, Indy, Dave and Andreas met at the Lench's Trust offices to review progress on fundraising and other matters. Things are going slower than we planned but we are expecting to meet our target. The balance of funds are due this week for our travel costs so we will all pay our fees for this directly to the travel agents. We discussed inoculations and will probably turn up en mass at the Handsworth surgery to get our Yellow fever jabs - another £55 - WOW!! Not only does Jean-Luc hate needles but this is going to hurt his wallet as well. We also need to sort out our malaria tablets the cost of which varies substantially depending on what make one gets and what side effects one is prepared to endure. I'm a but miffed that my practice nurse did not feel the need to prescribe Cholera vaccinations as Jean-Luc reckons I will need it. I will have to check this out.

According to the Kiboice blog that monitors weather on Kilimanjaro it has been snowing at the top of the mountain leading to a seasonal high in whiteness and the prevailing winds are also very heavy. Moreover, the long rainy season has begun and it has been "pouring it down big time " in Moshi which will be our starting point for the trek.

Lickey Hills - Jean-Luc and Parve - Another 5 miles of trekking

On Friday Jean-Luc emailed the team letting us know that he will be doing a short walk on Sunday. It would be about 5 miles and take about two hours in the Lickey Hills if any of us wanted to join him.

Well I figured that after the past few treks I would get as much training in as possible to wear in my boots and build the leg muscles. I was up for it and let Jean-Luc know.

On Sunday I popped into work to clear up odds and ends. I often do that as my team work 7/24 and it’s a good time to catch up with those boring routine administrative tasks without the constant interruptions one gets during the week. In any event it gets me out the house for a couple of hours.

So leaving work at 13:30 I drove across town along the Bristol Road and past the now half demolished Longbridge plant and picked up the signs to the Lickey Hills car park.

I had specifically asked Jean-Luc if there would be plenty of parking and he re-assured me that there would be loads unless half of Birmingham decided to turn up. Yes, you guessed it, the car-parks were packed – Bugger!! . With the fine warm weather half of Birmingham had indeed descended on the place. So after going back and forth between car-parks for twenty minutes I finally found a place and parked up.


I met up with Jean-Luc a few minutes later and we donned our gear and put on our climbing boots. I realised I had forgotten my new walking sticks. I had picked these up for £7 discounted form £24 from T K Maxx the day before. No worries, I figured I would be able to manage without them for this walk. But, I do recall reading in Patricia Wheatley Burt's Diary of her climb up Mount Kilimanjaro with Jean-Luc over ten years ago how indispensable these walking sticks were.

Kitted out and map in hand, we set off through the picnic areas and into the woods. We passed through some gorgeous countryside climbing over sties and negotiating several kissing gates. We passed three reservoirs and a boating lake where all the small sailboats were out in force. It was a calming, soothing sight, with a clean fresh breeze blowing past us and magnificent scenery along the rest of the route.

We rambled over hills with 35% inclines, jumped over brooks and intruded on several sheep having the run of the fields we were walking through. It was refreshing to meet people and families that actually still said good afternoon and seeing couples and families with kids or people walking a fabulous range of dogs. Jean-Luc commented on how great the UK was for ramblers and how if this was France the landowners would shoot on sight. Hmmm… I must confess this thought had never occurred to me. Another reason why the UK is a great place to live.

We made our way up to the highest point of the hills the Beacon where, because of the clear skies we could see Birmingham in the distance and just make out the BT tower and the Radisson faintly on the horizon. From the Beacon we studied the Toposcope to get the lie of the land before gradually making our way back to our starting point. I was breaking a good sweat, but that I could cope with. What really caused agony was walking down what the guide book described as "The 100 Steps” which were spaced apart and pitched such that each step we took jarred the knees and sent shocks up the back of the legs and ankles? This was more hazardous than the walking.

I made a mental note to visit the area again on a nice summer’s day with friends and a picnic basket because it really was a nice place, and it's so close to the city. We got back to our cars for five and Jean-Luc suggested we had tea in the visitors centre. Unfortunately I had to rush back home to shower, change and go out again for some more fun…

The day was great, and refreshing. But, I can’t help feeling it was not taxing enough to prepare me for the real thing. I need more endurance training.

Parve & Indy do Endurance Training in the Malverns today

It's been another great training trek today in the Malvern Hills. Indy and I met at 9am ( Qasim baled at the last moment )and started our trek at about 10am. We took a different route this time, more off the beaten track with 35% inclines, and boy were we feeling it. Another sign that more hill climbing practice is required. Weather was fine with a strong wind at the Beacon. We had a fabulous lunch at Chase Inn - a lovely Lamb Shank and a pint of Grolsch for me and a Salmon Fillet for Indy. Overall I think we must have covered about 7 miles.

I got back home for four, and had a nice hot shower and was off out again later for a different type of exercise - and a lot more fun lol..