CAIRO - Abeer Soleiman wasn't dreaming when she saw the heavy white clouds as she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. When she reached the peak of this 6,00mhigh mountain from the Tanzanian side, she felt that she was in Heaven and life's problems were very small. Abeer, 32, graduated from the Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University, in 2000. She doesn't consider herself to be a mountaineer, although she loves travel and adventure. For her, climbing is a hobby and she has also scaled some Egyptian peaks, such as the 2,800m-high Mount Sinai. All Abeer knew about Kilimanjaro was from what she'd read in Ernest Hemingway's novel, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”. “I started contemplating climbing Kilimanjaro when one of my relatives died of breast cancer. Many women die of this disease because they have no idea about early detection,” says Abeer. “Raising women's awareness is therefore vital. I'm aware that the National Women's Council has launched a project to raise women's awareness of the hazards of breast cancer, supervised by Dr Doria Salem, the Dean of Qasr Al-Aini School of Medicine, Cairo University.” If it is caught in the early stages, it costs LE15,000 ($2,700) to treat breast cancer and the recovery rate is high; if there is any delay, the treatment can cost as much as LE500,000 ($91,000) with a very low recovery rate, according to Abeer. This enterprising woman decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the breast cancer awareness campaign. She tried to get businessmen to sponsor her African adventure. Abeer still hopes to raise enough money to purchase 40 vehicles kitted out with equipment for the early deletion of breast cancer. She also hopes to buy a mammogram device for early detection of breast cancer costing $1.5 million. The vehicles will travel all over the country, including remote areas of the Delta and Upper Egypt, explaining to women the importance of early detection. Abeer failed to persuade any businessmen to sponsor her trip – one of them told her that “I'm not going to finance a picnic on Kilimanjaro”. She told Radio and TV magazine in an interview that it took her five days to climb the mountain. The organisers of the event gave her medicine to prevent her suffering from any sideeffects that might result from climbing at altitude. “We drank plenty of water and stopped for regular rests on the way, at specific locations on the mountain. We started climbing the last stage at midnight, in order to reach the peak at sunrise, as it would get too hot later in the day,” Abeer explained to the magazine. “When I reached the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, I cried. I realised that the world's problems were very small and that mankind can achieve great things.”
