Husband reaches pinnacle for cancer charity cash (From Times Series)

Husband reaches pinnacle for cancer charity cash

6:29pm Monday 10th December 2007 in

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A Barnet man has made a £6,000 thank you donation to the cancer hospice that cares for his wife after undertaking a gruelling mountain trek in Cuba.

Paul Newland, 63, of Netherlands Road, hiked through the Escambray mountains on behalf of the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead, where his wife Su receives treatment.

Mrs Newland was originally diagnosed with breast cancer but the disease has since spread to her bones. She attends the hospice's day therapy unit for pain control.

He said: "My wife is so brave. She had a broken neck last year and had to have a big operation. They cared for her in the hospice before sending her home.

"I have been so inspired by everyone who works there. I just thought I could give them a bit of help."

Mr Newland raised the majority of the money on the Just Giving website, through donations from friends and family.

Mr Newland completed the trek with 15 other people, all participating for different charities. They hiked for about seven hours a day for six days, enduring 35 degree heat and 100 per cent humidity.

Despite preparing for the challenge in Snowdonia, Wales, and being a keen rambler, Mr Newland said: "Nothing could have prepared me for the heat over there, and the humidity was mind-blowing. The first day I was a bit overwhelmed, but we made stupid jokes to keep each other's sprits up. It was the experience of a lifetime."

Maintaining contact with his wife gave Mr Newland the incentive to reach the peaks of Escambray.

He said: "I phoned her every day. Sometimes I couldn't get through because there was no reception down in the valley, but when I was on the mountain tops I could get signal."

Mr Newland is still fundraising for the hospice, but has no plans to go trekking again.

Instead he is motivating others to don their hiking boots for a five-day trek in the Atlas mountains in Morocco next October, organised by the hospice.

Liz Allen, fundraising manager at the hospice, said: "Paul's a bit of a legend in the fundraising team - £6,000 is an outstanding achievement. All the money will be spent on nursing care here at the hospice."