On the 26th of December 2011 Bryre Groenewald is reattempting his summit of Kilimanjaro. Unfortunately he had to descend before summitting on his last attempt in Jan 2011 due to spinal surgery he had received the previous year.
In August 2009 he was diagnosed with a cyst his spinal cord between C1 and C2, with a build up of spinal cord fluid in his right brain ventricle and subsequently had to have a VP shunt put in along with a Cervical Laminectomy to drain the cyst. He later found himself in hospital for another MRI scan and 5 weeks of radiation therapy, but to everyones’ amazement the cyst had disappeared, but the cause of everything was revealed; his brain stem had collapsed below the level of his skull and had subsequently been rubbing against his first 2 vertebrae and this had resulted in the build up of fluid in his brain and so a second Cervical Laminectomy was scheduled.
This year he attended the Quest core programme designed by Falcon College, Zimbabwe. Quest is a seven month programme which concentrates not only on scholastic and technical skills not covered in conventional education, but more importantly on building stamina and physical and mental endurance and teamwork in young men. Due to the course at Quest he now feels confident he will be successful this time around.
Bryre won the award for the ‘Student who contributed most to the learning of others’. This was well earned by the tenacity and endurance he showed culminating in his completion of a fifteen kilometre run and the sixty km ‘Tour De Falcon cycle race.’
Quest, Falcon College and SPAR, Zimbabwe have supported his aspirations and have kindly pledged a total of $3000 towards this dream of summitting the tallest free standing mountain in the world.
His team consists of four other members, Giles Raynor, a pilot and his daughter Emily who is at Peterhouse. Claire Hough and Shelley Niccolle are both teachers at Peterhouse boys and Springvale respectively.
“You have to do what other’s don’t to achieve what others won’t!” Unknown