A couple of years ago, while speaking at a conference in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, I met a phenomenal woman, Dr. Sharon Moore. A university professor, author, speaker, photographer, quilter, wife, mother, Sharon inspired me by her verve for life—and the most current topic of her research: hope. Since then Sharon and I have kept in touch. She received her PhD from University of Texas at Austin, where I live, and loves the city. I was privileged a while back to open an unexpected package from Sharon and find a lovely photograph she had made which she reported she was inspired to make after reading a particular section of one of my books, Seven Choices.

Moore on the Mountain - You Gotta Have Hope
30 May 2005If the mountain won’t come to Moore…Dr. Sharon Moore, wife, mother, nurse, psychologist and AU professor, will attempt to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro this fall to raise funds for Alzheimer research.

Even as you are reading this newsletter, Sharon is doing a wonderful thing. She is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Alberta Alzheimer’s Society. First, I’d like you to read about Sharon in this excerpt from her university website:

People with Alzheimer’s disease face a mountain every day of their lives. Dr. Sharon Moore will face her own mountain this fall—she hopes to reach the summit of Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro in October. The Athabasca University nursing professor is the Alberta representative on the Ascent for Alzheimer’s 2005 national team raising funds for Alzheimer’s disease research.

For Moore, this lofty endeavour is about having hope and increasing the understanding of the role of hope in human life. As a nurse and psychologist, she has studied suicide and hopelessness and the difference that hope makes in people’s lives. “I have worked in this area for so long. I have worked with people who have lived and struggled for so long. For some time now, I have felt that there has to be a way to make a difference before people get to that hopeless point.

“Hope is in a person’s attitude. I think ‘What would a hopeful person do?’… Hope is like an insurance policy—you have to have it before you need it.”

While in Africa, Moore has been invited to give the Marifaa Lecture at a small university. She also hopes to connect with the nursing faculty in Kampala, Uganda, where she will do some volunteer work with her sister, a nurse missionary.

Getting in physical condition is not the only challenge Moore has committed to. All climbers are raising $10,000 for the Alzheimer Society of Canada in addition to paying their own expenses for the trip.

“You can set yourself a challenge that you may think is beyond your reach and do your best towards achieving it,” she says. “There is no guarantee I will get to the top. You can’t predict how you will react to the altitude. I have to commit to the belief that wherever I get to on the mountain, I will have been a success.”

More information on the climb is available from the Alzheimer Society of Alberta at http://www.alzheimer.ab.ca/. You can also visit the website for updates as the climb takes place in the fall.

For anyone wishing to donate to the $10,000 fundraising initiative, cheques can be made to the Alzheimer Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories, indicating that the funds are donated in support of Dr. Moore’s ascent.

Now, I’d like to share with you Sharon’s last note to me and a number of other friends before she left on September 25 for Africa to begin her climb:

Hi Friends and Colleagues:I am in my final preparation to leave for Kilimanjaro tomorrow (Sunday). I will meet the first person on my team on the flight to Minneapolis and we will fly to Amsterdam. Spend two days in Amsterdam where we will meet up with two fellows who are also on our team. We will all fly from Amsterdam on Wed. to the Kilimanjaro International Airport and will be met by a van to take us 80 kilometres to the Marangu Hotel in Moshi Village, Tanzania where we will stay for the first two nights and meet the others on our team. We will have an orientation on Wed. evening, a rest day (and trip into the village on Thursday) and will be transported on Friday to the mountain when we will start the climb.

Thank you to so many of you who have sent your thoughts and best wishes, energy, hope and love. I am committed to doing more than my best each day on the mountain. The Path to Kilimanjaro so far has already been an experience of a lifetime. Last evening my friends hosted a farewell party for me and topped off the wonderful evening of celebration with a Kilimanjaro cake that had mountains on it and writing that read “Reach the Summit” with a little hiker in a red hat. Too cool, but I ate the summit.

I have met many wonderful people along the way as I have been working at preparing for this journey for the past year. I have had a terrific trainer to work with, Jane Megoran, who trained her running partner to climb Kilimanjaro; an outstanding physiotherapist, Wayne Morrison who has gotten my back into shape; the opportunity to get to know the first Canadian man (Laurie Skreslet) to summit Mount Everest in 1982 (and to have him as my mountain guide for training hikes to the summit of Mount Yamnuska and the summit of Grotto Mountain – Just did Grotto 3 days ago, it was 10 and a half hours on the mountain); the opportunity to get to know the first North American woman to summit Mount Everest in 1986 (Sharon Wood) and learn from her experiences on the mountain; the chance to learn hiking and clothing tips from my good friend and mountaineer, Colleen Campbell (who was at base came the year that Laurie summitted Everest); the opportunity to hike in some of the most beautiful places in the world in the Canadian Rockies; the chance to deepen friendships with some of my dearest friends and to be reminded of how special these friendships are.

Good friends Sue and Kerry just left my house after packing up my hiking bag and my suitcase for Africa. They did such a good job. Friends from coast to coast and south of the border have supported me with phone calls, emails, cards and letters. Thank you all. I’ve also had lot of walking and hiking partners; Agnes, Sherri, Pat, Sue, Kerry, Suzanne, Gail, Alice, Steve & Fabienne (all the way from France), Mary and Carla from Newfoundland.

So many people have supported me also in contributing funds to the Alzheimer’s Society. As many of you know, each climber had to commit to raising a minimum of $10,000.00 for the Alzheimer Society in addition to paying our own expenses. I think that by the time I am finished that number will be at least $20,000.00 for the Alzheimer Society. I know that these funds can make a difference in some of the research or programs that go to support individuals living with Alzheimer Disease.

The group of women that I quilt with (Kerry, Sue, Bobbi, Rosemary, Cathy, Cathie, Linda, Suzanne, Christa & Berney) made a beautiful sail boat quilt which was raffled off in August to raise funds for Alzheimer’s. A group of women from my church (Linda, Lorraine, Lis, Linda, Pauline, Judy, Elaine, Shawna) as well as some other friends from across the country Agnes, Suzanne, Kerry, Sue, Suzanne, Linda, Nora, Pam, Mary, Gail, Berney, and Suzanne) all contributed a lighthouse block for another quilt (an image of hope quilt) which is also being raffled off.

Good friends Jean Miller and Sandi Hirst, two of my nursing faculty colleagues hosted an Extreme Barbeque and silent auction fund raising event in the summer which was attended by many friends. Since it was the date my mom ended up having emergency surgery in Edmonton, I could not attend it but my son Kaleb attended in my place wearing my Ascent for Alzheimer’s t shirt and charmed the crowd.

Good friends Ronna Jevne and her husband Allen Eng hosted an African dinner fund raising event that was very successful right down to the magnificent “Snows of Kilimanjaro” dessert. A week prior to that Ronna and Allen conducted a workshop on Photography and Writing and donated all of the registration to Alzheimer’s.

Many of my faculty colleagues at Athabasca University in the Centre for Nursing and Health Studies have been very supportive in both fundraising initiatives and in helping to plan my yearly workload to make this trip possible. Sherri has been my great encourager in walking and swimming (lots of times when I really didn’t feel like it).

When I came home from a conference two and a half years ago (inspired after hearing about The Ascent for Alzheimer’s) and told my family “I am going to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro”, I was met with “yeah right mom”. They now believe me and have been so supportive along the way with helping me with training and buying gear and encouraging me.

Good friend Dr. Lynne Mitchell Pedersen did this Ascent for Alzheimers climb of Kili. She has been with me all the way mentoring me, giving support, encouragement and tips and tricks for everything imaginable. As I hike that mountain, I know that I will be walking the path that she walked a year ago and know that she is walking that path again with me.

Some of you know that about seven years ago, I had such a bad back and leg problem, I could hardly walk from my office to my car and ended up having major back surgery in 1997. As my surgeon told me at that time “you have lots of hardware in your back, two rods, four screws, a bone graft and a fusion”. When I hiked to the summit of Grotto Mountain this week with Laurie Skreslet, I felt like I had reached a big milestone in overcoming what two years ago seemed insurmountable with the recurrence of back and leg pain. (I know I still have lots to learn about climbing and getting down) but I have learned lots. When I came down off the mountain that night, we met Colleen and a CBC documentary reporter for dinner and then Colleen took me home to here house in Canmore and poured me the best bubble bath I have ever had and put me to bed for the night. It sure was nice to not have to drive back to Calgary that night.

To me climbing Kilimanjaro is about reaching beyond my limits. It is about setting a goal and then working toward that goal. I think I have learned a lot about trying to face my fears and found that when I do that, I often gain courage about things that I never thought I could do. I have seen my hope grow.

Following the Ascent for Alzheimer’s, I will be traveling to Uganda where my sister lives and works with five medical clinics. I will have an opportunity to work along side her there, and to do some visiting lectures at the School of Nursing at Makaere University in Kampala, as well as give the Marifa Lecture and the Kima International School of Theology in Kenya. These are all experiences that I know will give me a whole new perspective on life and on the world.

I put together a group distribution list of friends, family and colleagues and that is how I am sending this message to you. During the climb, the person from the Alzheimer’s office will be telephoning 4 designated contact people for each climber when she gets an update from the satellite). So I have asked my friend Sue Burns to send a note to the distribution list so she can let you know how the climb is going. (This list has friends from around the world, across Canada, US, Poland, Norway, Japan, Africa and England) friends far and wide.

There are two teams (team one is a team from British Columbia and they are on the mountain now). Team Two is a national team (the one that I am on) and our climb goes from Sept. 30-Oct. 6.

There may also be updates on the British Columbia Alzheimer website which is http://www.alzheimerbc.org/. And on the Alberta Website which is http://www.alzheimer.ab.ca.

So to all of you, thank you for your support, thoughts, prayers, encouragement. I will be in touch when I can.

Till later

Sharon

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Dr. Elizabeth Harper Neeld offers wisdom and practical insights to anyone whose life is in a time of transition, change, grief and loss of any kind. As an internationally recognized and accomplished consultant, and author of more than twenty books - including Tough Transitions and Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World - she is committed to work that helps lift the human spirit.