#EpilepsyAwareness: Conquering Mt Kilimanjaro to create awareness around epilepsy

Fredrick Beuchi made it to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro after four days of climbing

In a bid raise awareness and spread the message about epilepsy to the farthest corners of Africa, Fredrick Beuchi set out on a mission to summit Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in the continent.

Named Beuchi’s Mt Kilimanjaro Challenge, the excursion included a four-day cycling trip from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania, and another four days of hiking to the top of the mountain.

On November 25, the epilepsy awareness flag was hoisted at the highest point in Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro’s Uhuru Peak after four labourious days of climbing to the top.

Beuchi had left Nairobi on 17th November in a team of ten cyclists and arrived in Arusha in the company of only three after six had to turn back at the Namanga border.

Before the climb, the other three also had to call it a day leaving Beuchi in the company of a friend who had joined him at Arusha for the climb that started with a 6-hour trek in thick forest to Machame Hut Camp.

The four-day climb to the top started with 6 hours of hiking in thick forest

The following day they made it to Shira camp after an 8-hour trek and on day three they camped at the Barafu camp from where they made the ascend to Uhuru peak, making it by 2pm on the fourth day.

“Altitude sickness affected me mentally and I thought I was going to die, I felt like I couldn’t continue anymore,” Beuchi narrates his challenges during the climb, an experience he terms the toughest of his life.

“I remember telling our guide that if I fall dead, they should preserve my body in the glacier and continue to the very top, take pictures and let the world know that we made it, then maybe come back to pick me thereafter.”

Beuchi, an epilepsy awareness activist, took on the mission as an opportunity to share right information about the condition alongside advocating for the rights of people living with epilepsy; highlighting epilepsy issues by translating epilepsy content to native languages, and supporting children with epilepsy access medication.

So far, Beuchi has received support to provide 45 children living with epilepsy with medication for a whole year. To help translate epilepsy content, he has partnered with Epilepsy Alliance Africa and has a group of individuals from 32 African countries who are already helping him translate a template with basic information on epilepsy to their native languages.