A few months ago we posted a blog from Neil Hunter, one of our patients, who is trekking to the South Pole to raise money for Diabetes UK.
Neil has updated us with the following:
I leave the UK on 11th November so less than two weeks to go! Once in Chile I then fly into Antarctica on 18th Nov and hope to start within a day or two from then.
All of my food and the vast majority of my kit has been been sent to Chile and has arrived at its destination in Punta Arenas where I will be reunited with it on my arrival. My sledge has now been built and is currently on its way too.
I have been spending some time testing my communications kit so I will be able to send daily blogs and hopefully pictures too.
Along with this, a tracker map has been constructed and will be on my website where you can see where I am each day.
Training is still ongoing but right now it is just maintaining the level I have worked towards the past year and hoping to stay injury free from now until departure.
I have tested some of my clothing at the University of Portsmouth’s cold chamber where I walked on a treadmill at minus 20 deg C for over an hour to see how my clothing systems worked. This was very successful and gave me a lot of confidence in the kit I have chosen.
Donations have reached almost at £1000 but I hope that to increase once I am under way and interest should be on the rise.
I expect to be at the South Pole roughly six weeks after my start but I have enough provisions for 50 full days and can stretch this out if necessary. My food alone will weigh just under 65kg and this will provide me with 6200 calories per day. By burning somewhere in the region of 8000 calories per day I expect to lose a significant amount of weight. Because of this I have been consciously gaining weight, putting on over a stone in weight in the past 5/6 weeks! So nice to eat all those bad things without feeling guilty!
If you would like to keep up to date with Neil’s progress you can do so on his facebook page at www.facebook.com/90DegreesSouthSolo
and his website where the blogs and tracker will be is www.90degreessouthsolo.co.uk
Neil is also raising funds at his Just Giving page: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/southpolesolo
