A record breaking climb up Kilimanjaro | Our Kili-climbers tell their story

Overall, I’m just aching, it feels like I’ve been hit by a Ford Fiesta at thirty miles an hour!

​Over the past year, we have been following the journey of Morson Forces ambassador, Andy Reid, Group Training Director, Matthew Leavis, and Principal Engineer, Graham Eardley, as they prepared to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise vital funds for The Standing Tall Foundation.

Last month they achieved their goal, summiting the mountain a day earlier than expected. In this video Andy, Graham and Matt reflect on the experience…

 Andy: I would have liked a day longer to really just acclimatize better and get used to the heat. I was still jetlagged and back on foot, climbing the mountain straight away. We set off and the first jungle bit was quite steady. I thought ‘it’s alright this’, but then we started at the Green Lodge and went down a massive hill where we had to sit and slide down. Then got to a sign that said we were starting! We’d already done 1k and thought that was the start! That part was downhill and the rest of it was very steep uphill! After about two or 3 hours I had to sit down for a minute, because it just dawned on me the magnitude of the challenge we were taking on.

Matt: I don’t think you’re on your own in that. We had done so much preparation, but I don’t think anything can prepare you for the enormity of the task until you’re standing at the base of the mountain and you can’t even see the summit. But then the guides say, oh, it’s around this corner, over that ridge, and in the horizon, so there’s no turning back.​

Andy explained the physical challenges he faced on the journey and how he’s feeling now that the mission has been accomplished.

Andy: This right leg is fantastic, it held up well. I thought the skin would break down, I thought I’d get sweat marks, but it was great. A lot of that is down to Vikki and the team, who were fantastic. Every time I stopped, they helped me clean the prosthetic down, make sure my skin was coping and get the leg back on. I swapped prosthetics halfway through - I said the other day I’ve got more legs than a spider!

But my left leg’s hurting a little bit. It’s leaking quite a lot from the pin and there’s been a fair amount of blood. But I’ve been for some X-Rays and there’s no hairline fractures or anything like that. My hips are good, I might have a slight surface infection, I had some blood tests the other day so we’ll see what comes back from those.

Overall, I’m just aching, it feels like I’ve been hit by a Ford Fiesta at thirty miles an hour. In some ways the most difficult part is the post-event blues. I keep waking up at 5 in the morning thinking what now? It was such a massive challenge, training for the climb and the feeling of accomplishment when we reached the top of the mountain was incredible. Now we’ve come home and I’m sure we’ve all been busy, but it feels like something’s missing.

Matt and Graham discussed the intensity of the experience and the bonds they had developed.​

Matt: We had been so focused on this trip for two years. We were talking about it for so long. I joined the programme before it was even designed, it was just an idea at that point. So, for two years we’ve been working towards this goal and now it’s finished. It’s a weird feeling. I think the strangest part hit me just as I left the hotel. I messaged Graham to let him know I’d left, and I was just struck by the sense that we’d been together all day, every day for a week and I didn’t know when I was going to see him again.

Graham: When you’re living in each other’s pockets like that for ten days you can’t help but end up being mates. We’re working at the same company so, I’m sure we’ll see each other around. It’s like when you bump into your mates from school that you’ve just not seen for years, the conversation just picks up like no time has passed.

The trio discussed what that feeling was like when they finally summited Mount Kilimanjaro:

Graham: Summiting is really weird and I haven’t really been able to fully process and remember what happened. We set off 2 hours later than Andy, but we were another hour behind in terms of distance as well. I wasn’t feeling 100% when I woke up that morning. But when I was getting ready, I tried to enjoy just being in the terrain for one last day.

Normally Matt and I would be getting a bit frustrated about sticking to the line. On earlier days we would walk off trail to take in the views. But that day I was happy to just walk in the line. I was having a break when Matt turned to me and said, ‘We might not catch Andy at the top if we don’t pick up the pace’. So, we turned things up a gear and just managed to catch Andy at the summit. Andy and the team were about to start their descent, but we got a photo together and I was so glad that we’d made that extra effort to see him at the top. After that, I sat on a rock for a bit to recover and just tried to take it all in. We didn’t get long up there!

Andy: It was very overwhelming, wasn’t it? Well, it was overwhelming and at the same time, I felt a bit underwhelmed. I think because you see that stone and the wooden sign for so long as you’re walking towards it. Then as I came around the corner I could see a massive glacier and thought to myself, I want to walk down there!

Matt: Do you think you were underwhelmed with the summit because you never doubted that at you were going to do it? Maybe in your mind, you’d already got there, and I wonder if that’s it? I know I didn’t want to do a Rocky-style celebration. It’s an odd feeling of, well I spent six days getting here and I’ve had 15 minutes to enjoy it, better get going back down again now.

I was really inspired by seeing was the commitment of people, how some people walked after the nights they’d had. You heard people getting up in the night, let’s just say they were going through a tough time. For them to get up the next morning, and just put one foot in front of the other was a huge achievement.

I was also concerned for myself. I remember lying there one night trying to get to sleep and wondering if my stomach has just made a noise and just hoping that I wasn’t next. It was prolific across the whole group. The way some of those people bounced back and still summited was unbelievable. It showed their determination for the charity, for themselves.

One of the highlights of the Kili Climbers’ expedition was breaking the world record for the highest food delivered on land.​

Andy: The challenge was amazing and we had some great sponsors. One of them was Uber Eats. I used to get the Guinness World Record book every Christmas, to have our names in it, it’s a fantastic legacy! We hold the record for the world’s highest food delivery on land. Absolutely amazing, great funds raised for the foundation as well. Did you two indulge in the burger?

Matt: No, we did witness other people in the group trying it though. We had to leave at that point.

Graham: They said it tasted good, whether they felt the same later I’m not sure. It was an eight-day-old burger, so not the most appetising!

Andy: It’s been great to catch up again, thank you, from myself and everyone at the foundation for coming on the trip and putting in all that work, training and fundraising. There’s been amazing support from Morson as well, staff at head office did a stair climb challenge. I’ve seen some footage which was fantastic to see, even Ged himself did a few steps. I just want to give a massive thank you for supporting the challenge.

Everyone at Morson is incredibly proud of Andy, Matt and Graham for completing the challenge and raising £20,131 between their Just Giving pages.