From the top of mount Kilimanjaro

If you read the Appliances Online blog regularly you'll be aware some of the team climbed Kilimanjaro last week to raise money for Bolton Lads and Girls club. The grand total raised for the expedition is still yet to be announced but in the meantime, here is an insight from Lucy Brearley, the moment she made it to the top after seven days of hard trekking...

Kilimanjaro Friday 11 March 2011 between 4 and 5am

My head is pounding, I can’t feel my toes, my water supply has frozen, with every step I struggle for breathe; I know I’ve hit my wall...the question is can I push through it? I am not a quitter, I will make it , there can’t be long left…can there?

We stop for a short rest and I know this will make or break my will to go on. Then someone hands me a mug of hot tea...fuel, I take my boots off and try to encourage some life back into my poor toes by rubbing some warmth into them with my thick gloves. I change the battery on my lifeless mp3 player...music motivation. I check my water pipe, fantastic it's finally defrosted. I get up to carry on, I have broken down my wall, there is no question now, I will make the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro Uhura Peak, I no longer know how to give up.

As we begin to cross the volcanic crater the mountain is lit up by the warm orange glow of the sun rise and I can see for the first time since we set off for the summit, and it is the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, shafts of light bounce of the crisp ices and lick the shadows of the black volcanic rock and I know it is a view I will never forget.