8:37 am, August 2, 2013
THE husband-and-wife team who own the Grants Seat dealership in Braintree, Essex, climbed Kilimanjaro to raise £8,400 for charity.
The exhausting 35-mile trek to reach the summit took Katie and Darren Williams five challenging days to complete.
Averaging 14 hours per day, the pair eventually reached the Uhuru peak, to stand almost 6,000 metres above sea level on Africa’s highest mountain, roughly 180 miles south of the equator in Tanzania.
It’s estimated that around one third of those who attempt to reach the summit fail to do so – and the couple certainly had to battle through the most challenging conditions to achieve their goal.
In addition to coping with the altitude, they had to deal with wildly fluctuating temperatures, ranging from -30 degrees to 30 degrees Celsius.
Darren’s son Grant, after whom the dealership is named, suffers from autism, and the £8,400 raised will be split between Autism Anglia and automotive industry charity, Ben.
Mr Williams, the dealer principal at Grants Seat, said: ‘We are absolutely delighted to have made it to the top of Kilimanjaro, and to have raised so much for causes that are so close to our hearts.’
Katie added: ‘We trained extremely hard for five months prior to the climb and we’re fairly regular gym users, but we’d not done any trekking before so this was entirely new.’
The struggle was definitely worth it as the Kilimanjaro donation takes the couple’s total donation to Autism Anglia beyond the £10,000 mark.
Autism Anglia’s Anna Rogers said: ‘Katie and Darren have shown fantastic support for us over the years.
‘It’s not just the money they raise that we’re grateful for, but their unwavering dedication to our cause and the amount of awareness that they generate.’
