Five intrepid liver transplant patients are in the final stages of training for an expedition to climb Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak.
The five Belgians, who are taking part in the "Kili Liver Live" expedition, have been preparing for the last three months and are due to attempt their climb in February 2003.
The team hope their trek will encourage more people to become organ donors by raising awareness about the high success rate of liver transplantation, which allows recipients to lead a virtually normal life.
At 5,895 metres (19,341 feet), Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is the world's highest free-standing mountain. Several thousand people attempt the climb every year, but only about 70 per cent reach the summit.
The team's training programme has included jogging, walking and regular trips to the gym to build up muscle stamina. However, compared to other climbers, the transplant patients will have an extra day's rest before beginning the trek and extra acclimatisation during the ascent.
The five will be supported by a team of 20, including medics, guides and porters, and will be led by experienced mountaineers. Oxygen and high a altitude chamber ~ used to treat mountain sickness ~ will be available and back-up support will be provided by the Kilimanjaro Medical Center in Moshi and the flying doctor service in Nairobi.
The expedition was officially launched at a press conference in Monte Carlo last week (12/11/02) and is the brainchild of Professor Jacques Pirenne, a transplant surgeon from the University of Leuven in Belgium.
 Prof Pirenne has already climbed Kilimanjaro twice, but decided to organise the trek after hearing about Kelly Perkins, a US woman who climbed the mountain in 2001 after receiving a heart transplant in 1995.
He selected the participants after sending letters to his patients ~ the only restrictions being that they were aged under 50 and had undergone their transplant at least a year before the trek was due to take place.
Prof Pirenne said the aim of the expedition was to recognise the "gift of life" that organ donation and immunosuppressant treatment offered to the vast majority of transplant recipients.
He said, "Organ transplantation ~ liver, heart or kidney ~ has become an almost routine life-saving treatment for people suffering from certain diseases."
"This, combined with advances in immunosuppression therapy, offers these transplant-organ recipients a second chance in life. Not only a chance to survive but a chance to become fully rehabilitated and enjoy a full and active life."
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