A PENARTH dad is set to climb the highest mountain in Africa in a bid to thank hospital staff for caring for his newborn son.
Alex Fray said he was terrified when there were complications during the birth of his two-year-old son Sam in November 2012.
His wife AnnMarie was in labour for more than 30 hours and, after doctors used forceps to deliver Sam in theatre, when he was born he wasn’t breathing and was rushed off to the Neonatal unit at the University Hospital Wales.
His recently married parents faced a nervous wait to find out whether he was okay, but thanks to the quick thinking ventilation action of the team of doctors, nurses and midwives he went on to make a full recovery.
After four days in the Neonatal unit little Sam was allowed to return home and the family haven’t looked back since.
Alex, 31, is now set to embark on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of the Special Care Infant Parent Support (SCIPS) as a thank you for the care and treatment the family received in their hour of need.
Alex, who works as a network architect, said that he had a newfound respect for hospital staff after the delivery of his son.
“The doctors and nurses in the Neonatal unit were exceptional, and over the four days to follow we saw an improvement in Sam each day until he was discharged,” said Alex.
“Today Sam is a perfect, loving, little boy with boundless energy. Seeing firsthand what the doctors, nurses, midwives and staff at UHW and the Neonatal Unit do every day, I am forever grateful and have nothing but admiration for them which is why I want to help raise money for SCIPS.”
His wife AnnMarie, 32, also paid tribute to the hospital staff: “They were amazing and absolutely fantastic.
“We had three different midwives and they were all incredible.
“When our first midwife came back to see us we told her what happened and she was in tears.”
After returning home Alex decided that he wanted to do something to thank the hospital staff, and signed up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. He has spent the last six months training for the challenge, recruiting one of his friends that is a budding personal trainer to put him through his paces at 7am every morning at Victoria Playing Fields.
He has also been climbing Pen y Fan in a bid to get used to climbing mountains, but said that his main concern was the altitude when he reaches the top of Kilimanjaro, which is 5,895metres, or more than 19,000 feet, above sea level.
“I have been above 4,500metres a few times as I have climbed mountains in the Andes and Borneo, but I have never been that high before,” he said.
“I’m really excited and terrified by it as I have done a few things on my own, but never anything like this before.”
Alex, of Countess Place, added about the trek: “I will be trekking the Le Mosho route which takes seven days to reach the summit at Uhuru peak. This route goes from one extreme climate zone to another, from rain forest to desert to freezing temperatures and glaciers towards the summit. Although the likes of Cheryl Cole and Chris Moyles have both achieved this goal, there is quite a high failure rate and I doubt my meals and accommodation will be as grand.”
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