At 7:30am local time in Tanzania on Wednesday 4th September, Ben and a team summited Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 meters) after a five-day trek, one by one becoming the highest persons in Africa! 

“Unfortunately, I learnt the impacts of severe altitude sickness the hard way, and just missed the opportunity to summit, a few hundred vertical meters from the top. Since early last year, I’ve overseen recruitment, fundraising, and project execution for Choose a Challenge (www.chooseachallenge.com) as the Challenge Manager, with the team raising funds to support Restless Developments (www.restlessdevelopment.org) global work, which allowed the team of six of us from Kings College London to travel to the heart of Africa.”

Ben’s team joined other teams from the University of Nottingham, Greenwich, Sheffield and Bristol. Throughout multiple socials, training days and fundraising events which involved a partnership with Transport for London, the team grew from strangers to close friends as they accomplished a trek of a lifetime.

“The project allowed me to oversee the recruitment, fundraising and project execution beyond a number of setbacks and difficulties. And I am incredibly proud of everything we have achieved.”

Ben was involved with DofE at SGS, completing Silver and Gold in Canoeing. He credits DofE for getting him into outdoor expeditions and with all of his DofE experiences occuring during COVID he learned to be prepared for the projects he is working on today, knowing that things being a mess isn't always a bad thing and is reality a lot of the time! Ben is currently at King’s College London and his thesis explores how exploration and data we can take from sites around the world can be used to influence themed entertainment attractions.