Newport soldier climbs Kilimanjaro for fallen comrade’s charity (From South Wales Argus)

Newport soldier climbs Kilimanjaro for fallen comrade’s charity

9:24am Wednesday 10th November 2010 in News By David Deans, Reporter

A NEWPORT soldier helped raise £30,000 in memory of a fallen comrade by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Rifleman Michael Perry, 26, made the summit despite battling altitude sickness at 5,300 meters.

He made the climb in honour of his friend Rifleman William Aldridge - who is the youngest British soldier to die in the Afghanistan conflict, aged 18 years and 47 days.

Their platoon, which is part of the Northern Ireland-based 2nd Battalion the Rifles, lost 11 soldiers during deployment to Helmand Province between March and October 2009.

Rifleman Perry took on the mountain at the end of October with Rifleman’s Aldridge’s girlfriend Zeta Price, 20.

Both were raising money for the William Aldridge Foundation, set up by Rifleman’s mother Lucy to support armed forces charities.

Rifleman Perry said the foundation has raised £30,000 towards its £40,000 target for the trip.

Rifleman Aldridge died on July 10 last year when he was killed in an explosion in Sanguin. He had himself been helping fellow servicemen who had been wounded in a previous explosion.

To tackle the climb the two joined a group of 35 people, beginning in the town of Moshi before hiking to their first camp at 3,000m.

From there they trekked across the Tanzanian landscape for five days, hiking through rainforest, heather and moorland before reaching the barren volcanic rock of the Barranco wall.

On the fifth night the team used torch light to reach Stella point at the crater rim, before climbing Uhuru Peak, the highest point on the African continent at 5896m.

It was at 5,300m that day that Mr Perry started to suffer the effects of altitude sickness, experiencing what he described as “really strong headaches.”

Because of the lack of oxygen at that height the team were not allowed to stay at that point for more than 20 minutes, from where they began their descent back to camp.

But despite this Mr Perry said he was overawed by the experience, and told the Argus he would climb the mountain again.

“It was all knew to me. It was something I’ve never done before,” he said. “Maybe it’s something I’d do again when I’m a lot older.”