Climbing Kilimanjaro for diabetes research

Diana Maynard, a research fellow in the Department of Computer Science, is about to set off on a charity expedition to Africa where she hopes to scale the continent’s highest peak: Kilimanjaro. On 30 January Diana will set off for Tanzania, following in the intrepid footsteps of her mother, who achieved the same climb exactly 50 years ago.

Aside from the personal challenge of the climb, the motivation for completing the trip is very personal to Diana, who is raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). She lost her father to the disease last summer, and is herself a type 1 diabetic. Incredibly she is attempting to reach the summit, over 19,000 feet high, despite also being registered blind and only partially sighted.
Diana said: “I’m not brilliant with heights, but one of the advantages of my sight is that I have very little depth perception, so I can’t really tell how far away things are. So in some ways it helps when you can’t see how high up you actually are!”

Despite losing a lot of her vision, and the other problems associated with diabetes, Diana has maintained an incredibly active lifestyle. She plays softball for the Sheffield Sting, is on a korfball team and enjoys cycling. She has done the Inca Trail, gone cycling through Cuba and walking in the mountains of Morocco.
Discussing possible future trips, Diana said: “I’ve wanted to do Everest base camp for a while now. There are lots of things I want to do, maybe some walking in the Pyrenees near Mont Blanc. I've had diabetes since I was eight, and I try not to let it stop me doing anything I want to.”

By 2025 it is estimated that four million people in the UK will suffer from diabetes. The JDRF has been around for over 40 years, and has put over £1 billion into researching a cure for the less common of the two types of diabetes: type 1. Diana is currently halfway towards her charity target, so if you would like to contribute a donation on her JustGiving page you can do so here. She also has a blog detailing her “thoughts, fears, and everything else” as she prepares for her trip, which you can visit here.