Terminally ill cancer patient conquers Qomolangma

Ian Toothill, a terminally ill cancer patient who has been given only months to live, climbed the world's highest mountain Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest in the West.

He reached the summit on Monday and tweeted "Nothing to see here, just some cancer dude ... on the summit of Mount Everest."

Toothill, a personal trainer, raised more than $40,000 for the Macmillan Foundation, which provides nursing care and assistance for cancer patients in the United Kingdom.

He's climbed in the Himalayas before he was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2015; he was told he'd beaten it but it reappeared.

On his website, Toothill said: "For those who suffer daily with cancer, I climb for you. For those who can't face the day and struggle with the nights, stay strong, and know this: You are never out of the fight, there is always a way."

Toothill is a Sheffield Wednesday soccer team fan but a friend told him he would donate $1,300 to his fundraising efforts if he planted a flag on the summit from the club's main rivals, Sheffield United, which he did.

He reached the summit via the North Col route.

He said he believed he was the first cancer patient to climb Qomolangma, and tweeted pictures of himself on the summit planting the Sheffield United flag.

Toothill was accompanied part of the way by Leslie Binn, from the UK town of Rotherham, who abandoned his own attempt on the summit in June last year when he stopped to save the life of a fellow climber.

Before the climb, Toothill told BBC Radio Sheffield: "I'm determined to prove anything is possible."

chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com

(China Daily 06/08/2017 page10)