John conquers injury to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro (From Wharfedale Observer)

Horsforth dad defies the odds in charity climb

3:00pm Tuesday 19th March 2013 in Local news

A dad-of-two from Horsforth has conquered Africa’s highest peak to raise £2,500 for a charity close to his heart.
John Sinclair, 38, overcame altitude sickness, a condition called high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) which is fluid on the lungs and a dislocated shoulder, in his battle to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, and raise the cash for the Cleft Lip and Palate Association.
“It was tough and eventful, to put it mildly!,” he said. “But I was pleased to do it and I raised £2,500, which is pretty good.”
Mr Sinclair, a dentist at Leeds Road Dental Practice in Bradford, was determined to complete the challenge and raise the money for the charity because his one-and-a-half year-old son Jamie was born with a cleft lip.
His partner at the dental practice, Matt Parrot, has a two-year-old daughter Layla, who was also born with a cleft lip, so there was never any question which charity Mr Sinclair would support with his climb.
One in 700 children are born with the condition -– about 1,000 a year in the UK – and the charity provides information, advice and one-to-one support through its network of branches.
Mr Sinclair and his wife Carolyn, 39, who also have a four-and-a-half-year-old son, Patrick, found out from ante-natal scans that Jamie would be born with a cleft lip.
Jamie’s birth, which was featured on the Channel 4 show, One Born Every Minute, was followed a few months later by surgery to repair the lip. He will need further surgery when he is around nine or ten.
Mr Sinclair said: “He had the operation last year on Valentine’s day and he is fine now – a great little lad.”
The climb is not the end of Mr Sinclair’s fundraising activities and he is now looking for a challenge a little closer to home.
If you would like to support John’s efforts, go
to justgiving.com/
JOHN-SINCLAIR2.