As they see the smiling faces of the children, they understand that these kids and many more just like them around the world can have opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have with a little help from ordinary people who have more than enough. In their hands is a Canadian flag bearing the names of over 200 donors who contributed to projects to help a desperate community on the shores of polluted Lake Victoria in Tanzania. The journey doesn’t end on Kilimanjaro for Barry and Chris. They can hear the blood pounding in their ears from the exertion and they experience the feeling of a damp towel clamped firmly over their mouths and noses as the altitude sucks the air from their lungs. They experience the beautiful vistas from the mountain as they stop for rest and nourishment and they are simultaneously awestruck by the sheer beauty of the glaciers and saddened by the knowledge that they are disappearing. But overcoming the odds, they make their way up the mountainside.

Chris has two tears in the meniscus of his knee, which become excruciatingly painful during the climb. Before leaving he develops a severe head cold limiting the amount of air he can take in when it is desperately required at altitude. It has been an incredible journey from couch to mountaintop for Barry who just reached his 60th birthday the month before. They are half a world away from their home in Ottawa, Canada. Where they go from here is in the hands of their guides. Their destination is tantalizingly close, yet there are two factors that will determine what happens next: the weather and - more importantly - the state of their health. It is January 16, 2009, at approximately noon local time and BARRY FINLAY and his son CHRIS are propped against a rock, struggling to draw a breath at Stella Point on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain.

Kilimanjaro and Beyond by Barry Finlay