Norlington's got you Kilimanjaro Challenge

Our ‘Norlington’s got you’ 2024 Challenge

A big thank you to all parents (past and present), students, staff, family and friends for supporting the school in raising over £1075 for the British Heart foundation. The 22 x 22 x 222 challenge involved carrying 22Kg over 22 days for 222 Km.

Our ‘Norlington’s got you’ 2025 Challenge

Life sends us all challenges. Some of these challenges we cannot face alone. This is true of many of the health challenges we face, and especially true if the challenge is cancer. We are fortunate that so much progress has been made in facing this disease but much more needs to be done.

In 2025 Norlington had two students who are battling leukaemia as well as staff supporting family members facing this dreadful disease. Over the years many people have lost loved ones, both Mrs Darwish and I lost our fathers to cancer.

Research into how we cure this condition is ongoing. So much has been accomplished over the past few years, so much more to do. We want to see cancer eradicated.

For our ‘Norlington’s got you’ 2025 Challenge the Principal, Mr Hernandez, represented the school by climbing Kilimanjaro (June 2025) in Tanzania to raise money and awareness for Cancer Research UK.

Everyone, whether directly or through family and friends, has been touched by this dreadful disease. All money raised as part of this challenge has been used to support Cancer Research UK realise its aims. These focus on discovering, detecting, preventing, and treating all forms of cancer, ultimately working to eradicate cancer from all our lives.

The final total raised was £12,888.

The Challenge

Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain in the world (more facts at the end of the letter). This is a very challenging climb of 5895 metres (19,341 feet) taking several days to complete.

According to a survey by the Kilimanjaro National Park, only 60% of climbers who attempt to summit Kilimanjaro each year actually make it to the top. This is mostly down to people getting altitude sickness. To maximise my chances, I will be taking the longer Lemosho route to allow myself to acclimatise to the altitude.

Even so, Tanzania lies just north of the Equator, meaning Mount Kilimanjaro is situated in a hot region. Yet the summit of the mountain is an unforgiving world of snow, ice and sub-zero temperatures.