2008 Pepper News

Conquering Aconcagua at 6962m/22841ft, in memory of Lauren Chambers

Last November, Tony Tollinton from Aldbury had a conversation with Pepper’s Karen Buchanan about his idea of climbing Aconcagua, the largest mountain in North/South America in memory of Lauren Chambers who died in January 2007.

Tony’s goal soon became a reality fuelled by his desire to remember the bravery of one so young whose life was cut short after a long struggle with cancer.

The pre-amble to his sponsorship form talked affectionally about Lauren and why he felt the need to undertake this challenge in her memory.

Tony commented, ‘I can remember when and where I had the idea. I was on my weekly run early this year in late January, and I had just come out of some woods near the Chiltern escarpment. My run was often a time of reflection and Lauren was very much in my thoughts. She had died a few days earlier after a long struggle with cancer.

Lauren was a girl from Aldbury and my wife Lucy and I had known her and her parents for many years. Lucy had tried to teach Lauren Maths at Aldbury School, but this had not been easy after Lauren had a brain tumour at the age of five.

I wanted to do something for Lauren to make sure that her memory would live on. If I raised money in her name, I would feel that I had added something small for what seemed such a waste of life.

I had been planning to climb a high mountain for many years and if I reached 20,000ft I would have achieved the goal of climbing higher than my father who reached the top of Kilimanjaro (5963m/19563ft) in about 1946.

A few months before Lauren died, Lucy and I were on a reunion in Derbyshire with some old mountaineering friends. One of them had climbed Aconcagua, therefore if he could do it, perhaps I could achieve a similar challenge! I had found my goal’.

Tony did achieve his goal and conquered Aconcagua, reaching the summit on 28 January 2008 – three days after the first anniversary of Lauren’s death. Tony raised a magnificent £4196 for Pepper, an amazing achievement.

We are so grateful to Tony for embarking on this trek not to mention the physical challenge it presented him with, all in memory of Lauren by raising funds for the Pepper nursing team.

Our heartfelt thanks Tony on behalf of everyone at Pepper.

27th August 2009

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