A STOCKPORT dad-of-two will spend 15 days trekking Everest – scaling heights of more than 18,100 feet – to raise money for a children’s charity.
Postie Michael Tipper will be climbing where oxygen levels are 50 per cent lower than normal, risking altitude sickness, dizziness and fatigue, all to raise money for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity.
Michael, pictured, is the first to admit the challenge had been on his bucket list for a while but only became a reality when he found himself booking flights in the pub one Friday night.
He said: “It was one of those ‘one day I’ll do it’ things until I got talking to someone who wanted to do it too.
“Then we met in a pub to a discuss it and before I knew it we’d booked the flights and it was really happening. I hadn’t had a drink until that point, only lemonade, but I needed one once I realised it was now real.”
Michael, 34, is no stranger to danger or endurance – during his Army days he fought in the Iraq war and has run up famous UK peaks including Snowdon and Ben Nevis.
He said: “Since leaving the Army I’ve tried to keep fit and healthy and I’ve done things like the Snowdon Half Marathon and run up Ben Nevis – I like a challenge.”
Michael is dad to 11-year-old Kodie and Ruby, aged eight. The choice of which charity to do the event for was simple – Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Charity.
Michael says he was inspired to fundraise for the charity after hearing about a friend’s daughter, PixieBelle Sykes, who began treatment for a brain tumour in July last year.
Six-year-old PixieBelle, from Ashton-under-Lyne, suffers from a rare form of brain tumour known as pilocytic astrocytoma.
Michael said: “I sometimes go running with PixieBelle’s dad Andy and heard about what had happened to her and what the family had been through. It was heart-breaking to hear he was going through that with his little girl.
“Having two girls of my own I can’t imagine what it must be like having a child in hospital.”
Michael has set up at a JustGiving Page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/michael-tipper3 and will be taking on the challenge on 1st March 2020. He hopes to raise at least £3,000 from his challenge.