9:35am Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Suruchi Sharma
A SHENLEY skier has completed a marathon mountain challenge to raise money for a cancer charity following the death of a family friend.
Chris Rook, an ex-Shenley Parish Council member, skiied over 24 mountain peaks in two days at the end of last month.
His lost his friend, Terry Doherty, 44, in April last year to cancer and has raised money for the Sue Ryder care home where Mr Doherty was cared for in the last month of his life.
Fitness fanatic Mr Doherty, who lived in Lane End, in Buckinghamshire, was diagnosed in January last year with an aggressive form of lung cancer, which quickly spread around his body despite never having smoked in his life.
He worked as a salesman for many years, but took an active interest in hypnotherapy, and in 2004, he decided to train as a hypnotherapist.
As part of his work he helped people to give up things like smoking, lose weight, and was coaching members of the Commonwealth Games shooting team to help with nerves.
Mr Rook said: “The challenge was to ski from 24 mountain peaks in two days. This meant skiing throughout four different ski regions in Austria and putting the challenge in a different light, entailed skiing the vertical equivalent of twice the height of Everest from sea level, 58,058 ft (17,700m).
"I am pleased to say that this was a challenge indeed, however, my group managed to ski a total of 67,240 ft (20,500m) which is over 2.3 times the height of Everest, or in terms of linear distance, we skied in excess of 190km.
“Even though I am an experienced skier, the endurance aspect of this challenge was immense, as I was skiing with some very young and expert skiers who pushed me to the limit of endurance.
“To those people who have already sponsored me, many thanks indeed as I have achieved an excellent amount of money so far for Sue Ryder Care.
"To those who were waiting until later, may I urge you to find time to spare a few pounds to help bring my total even higher still.”
To donate go to www.justgiving.com/chrisrook
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