A Nottingham Trent University student will lead a 25-strong team up Kilimanjaro next year, raising almost £70,000 for charity.
Lois Warner was recognised for her fundraising efforts in Tuesday’s Students’ Union awards giving but has been forced to push back her plans of climbing Africa’s tallest mountain by 12 months.
The final-year criminology student was due to embark on the challenge of climbing the world’s tallest peak later this year, but the coronavirus pandemic means she will have to wait until August 2021 to ascend Kilimanjaro.
The current total raised for Meningitis Research Foundation stands at just over £20,000.
But, if each team member hits their target, they will have collected nearly £70,000 which will be used to help discover a cure for the illness.
“Everyone has set targets,” Lois explained. “At the moment we have raised around £20,000 but, by the end, we could hit £70,000. It is an amazing achievement for us all.”
“Fundraising is at a hold at the moment as we don’t really want to take money from others at this time – it’s challenging to know what is right to do.
“We are still spreading awareness for the charity we are raising money for and making sure, even if trickles in in tiny amounts, it keeps ticking over.
” We’ve got a little bit longer now to fundraise so I think everyone will hit their targets which will be really good.
“There are a few of us who are really close to hitting our targets. We are really passionate about the challenge and the charity, so 100% I am sure that some of us will go over our targets and raise more than we intended to. It’s really exciting to see what we can do.”
Despite proceedings receiving a slight pause, the money raised will provide much-needed cash to Meningitis Research Foundation in finding a cure for the disease.
Rob Dawson, Director of Support at the Foundation, said: “This is an amazing achievement from Students at Nottingham Trent University that will help fund vital work to save lives in the UK and around the world.
“This year we start an ambitious plan to defeat meningitis by 2030 and their efforts will help us take this forward.”
Whilst delaying their schedule for completing the task and slowing down fundraising, coronavirus has also affected students participating who are currently in their final year of university.
A number of members within the group, Lois included, were set to graduate this summer before the global pandemic.
Despite the disease slowing down their progress, they are all keen to continue and will complete the climb at a later date.
Looking forward to the charity challenge, the final year Nottingham Trent student said: “It’s challenging at the moment [being apart] but we’ve been doing Zoom calls just to make sure people are caught up with what’s going.
“We have been doing lots of fundraising together and met up regularly so have made some really good friendships from it.
“Next year we won’t be at Trent, so we are making sure we stay close friends by having regular calls so, when we do the climb, it is more enjoyable.”
Once Lois graduates from her criminology degree she is set to embark on a new challenge in project management with the Government.
Her new role will involve working on major projects within the Government but, despite facing a move away from her Gloucestershire home, the Trent student hopes to continue fundraising for charities wherever she ends up.
She said: “I have a job lined up starting in October so I’ll be straight into that but fundraising is certainly something I’m passionate about and want to keep up.
“Life opens more doors once you are into full-time work so hopefully it gives me opportunities for fundraising – I really want to run a marathon one day so we’ll see how that goes!”
To find out more about the work of the Meningitis Research Foundation and donate to Lois’ JustGiving, click here.
By Matthew Lee
Feature photo credit: Lois Warner