Hi my name's Nick, I'm a CFer in my late 30s. I'm based in London, but am a director of a global business, which means I get to travel a fair bit including to the US which is always one of my favourite destinations. I am lucky. Apart from a couple of near death experiences as a child, it has been possible for me to generally keep my health stable. I think being active and sporty helps, and in addition to having a milder case of CF, I also now benefit from the new breakthrough medication, Kalydeco, which means it's now rare that I have to leave the room with uncontrollable coughing during board meetings, or try and disguise my coughs when on a date. I haven't coughed up blood in recent years either which I always found the most disturbing.

 

I always looked to try and do my bit to help, generally through participating in drugs trials. I was never open about having CF. Then with the new medication, I could no longer participate in the drugs trials, and so I looked for some new way to help. I was brought up in the middle of the countryside there were only outdoor sports to do as a child. I also lived in the Alps for a bit as an adult to learn French. I started pushing my boundaries further and further with the mountains I would climb.

 

In 2011 I reached my personal best which was Cho Oyu in the Himalayas, which is the 6th highest mountain in the world at 8,200m or 26,906 feet. It took me 3 attempts: the first in 2007 when I was kept off the top by a storm and one of our camps was wrecked; the second in 2011 when another storm came in;  and then got one last chance, and I lost 12kg (26 lbs.) in reaching the top as I couldn't take in enough calories to compensate for those used. Luckily I had bulked up a bit first.

 

During these attempts, I wasn't particularly interested in publicity.  In fact during my 2011 ascent, I had only told 6 people! However, now that I can no longer be a guinea pig on drugs trials, yet want to help in some way, I decided to take on new challenges and do them to raise awareness and money for CF.

 

I decided my next challenge would be Everest.

 

This is a ridiculously hard challenge for me (or for anyone), but I hope it generates some profile and money for CF, something which can be difficult to do in competing with all the other larger charities. I've had a reasonable response to my undertaking Mt. Everest so far including national press in the UK and interviews on BBC radio, spoken at Cambridge University and some dinners, and met various celebrities offering support including Stephen Hawking (pictured left) and Boomer Esiason in NYC. As long as it helps CF in some way I am happy to do most things!

 

Joining me on my attempt at Mt. Everest again this year, there is a small US documentary team coming with me to the base camp, and I hope to do some filming even above there. Interestingly the team is led by a CFer who unfortunately can't come along on the actual trip. I also have a £100k fundraising target for the CF Trust, of which I've reached £51k so far! I greatly welcome any ideas or donations. I hope to raise much more should I actually succeed...

 

I have been training for about 7 months. This has included running, running up and down many hundreds of flights of stairs, doing the stairs with ankle weights and an expedition rucksack, trips to the Alps to climb to the top at daybreak then ski, and just spending 7 hours or so going up and down a local hill with ankle weights and a rucksack - I carry about 26kg which is around 57lb. I can hardly walk at the end of it, or sleep as my leg muscles start to rebuild and hurt every time I move.

 

The mental strength is as important as the physical strength required, as your brain tells you to turn around as each step and each breath is difficult. Cho Oyu was really tough because I was ill and lost muscle, and we had to combine the last two days into one. But I believe that challenge has really prepared me for Mt. Everest. On each Cho Oyu expedition, half the people dropped out because they either didn't have the mental or the physical strength. I am slower than quite a few people at high altitude, as the oxygen is the equivalent of 7% instead of the normal 20%. Even though I have a reasonably good lung function, the people I am with are generally athletes and have a higher lung function than normal. My lung function, whilst good, is still obviously a bit damaged. I have also had to develop different coughing techniques so that I could continue to breathe too! With such stress on the lungs from coughing, during one expedition I actually ripped the muscle down the side of the lungs, which meant I was in a lot of pain for the remainder of the trip, and many weeks until it healed. Again, there was incredible mental strength required to push through the pain.

 

You'll probably be reading this when I'm on the mountain as  I leave in the end of March. It will take weeks through April and May due to the slow ascent needed for your body to acclimatise and generate red blood cells. If you'd like to chat with me, find out more, follow my progress or make a donation the below links should hopefully be helpful:

 

@CF_vs_Everest