Our Goal:
To raise $1,000,000 for
research and public education
about prostate cancer.
research and public education
about prostate cancer.
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| Our Goal: To raise $1,000,000 for research and public education about prostate cancer. | |
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John Loesing, Project Director Dr. Terry Weyman, Founder |
PROSTATE CANCER CLIMB
Climbing Kilimanjaro: Mission on a mountain
One foot up, followed by the other; one down, followed by the next. Six hundred times. Seven days a week. Sweat beads across his bald head. His breathing, like his footsteps, is steady, determined. The daily 25-minute step routine in his living room -- to prepare him for this week's trek up Africa's highest mountain -- started months ago. The Miami money manager is climbing the 19,400-foot Mount Kilimanjaro in a week-long trip that ends Friday. 'My friends keep saying, `You're crazy. Why are you doing this stuff?' I say it's for the right reason,'' Morson, 50, said before leaving for Africa. The reason: Raising awareness and money for prostate cancer, which afflicts 220,000 men in the United States and is the second-leading cancer killer of men behind lung cancer. Morson is one of 25 others from the United States, Canada, Ireland and South Africa trekking up the mountain. The climbers' message: If you can beat the mountain, you can beat prostate cancer. (It's curable -- if caught early.) ''Climbing is about 15 percent physical and about 85 percent mental. With cancer, the patient's attitude is the key,'' he said. Adventure trips are not new to him. He's a diver, hiker and skier who has climbed Mount Bierstadt (14,700 feet) and Mount Neva (12,814 feet), both in Colorado. When he gets to the top of Kilimanjaro, Morson plans to release the ashes of his mother, a climbing enthusiast who died of lung cancer this summer. The climb is the second sponsored by the California-based Hap Weyman Memorial Prostate Cancer Awareness Project, named after a Hollywood television production manager who died of prostate cancer in 1990. His son Terry got the idea of mountain climbing after seeing a documentary about a women's group that climbed Mount Aconcagua in Argentina to raise breast-cancer awareness. The men wanted to make a similar statement and organized a climb of Aconcagua in January 2001. Ten climbers and five cancer survivors braved 60-mile-an-hour winds and sub-zero temperatures. For Kilimanjaro, the climbers include four women and five men with prostate cancer. The oldest member of the group is a 75-year-old Texan who has prostate cancer. The climbers, who pay their own airfare and $800 for six days on the mountain, have to raise at least $2,000 in sponsorships each. That money goes to the Prostate Cancer Research Institute. The group will take the Rongai Route path up -- a nearly straight hike up the north side of the mountain. They'll sleep in tents and have guides and porters lead them on the journey. Tom Hyde, a 58-year-old North Miami chiropractor, will be among the climbers. His father-in-law, who died in 1999, had prostate cancer. ''My father-in-law was actually closer to me than my own father,'' Hyde said. "I wanted to try to do something to keep other people from going through what I saw him going through.'' Hyde is a former Marine who climbed Japan's Mount Fuji in 1968 on a lark with his roommate. Since then he has tackled the western face of Kilimanjaro in 1999, Mount Rainier in Washington state in 2000 and the Argentine mountain in 2001 (although he didn't make the summit because his legs gave out). Hyde said he wants other men to be inspired by him and say, "Because of you I went and had my PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen test) done. I had my digital check done. That makes it all worthwhile.'' And how do you train for mountain climbing in South Florida? Hyde has been doing 40-minute runs in the sand on the beach in Hollywood and bikes across the William Lehman Causeway Bridge in Aventura. He sees a personal trainer for an hour two to three times a week for squats and lunges to strengthen his legs. ''I try to do a minimum of 1 ½ to 3 hours a day of cardiovascular,'' he said. Morson does his 600-step routine and swims up to 1 ½ miles a day, doing laps at the pool at Biscayne Bay Campus of Florida International University. ''You don't need bulging muscles,'' he says. ``You need stamina and endurance.'' -- To reach Connie Prater e-mail cprater@herald.com.
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Christopher Morson carries a 25-pound backpack and silently
counts as his feet keep step with a rhythm.
