The Purpose

The 'Delivering Light' Eiffel Tower Climb challenge is about raising money for the Murambinda Mission Hospital in Zimbabwe. Specifically, to improve the care and survival rates of the new born at Murambinda Mission Hospital, hopefully by up to 50%. It aims to address, amongst other things, the disturbing reports that The Friends of Murambinda Hospiatl (FMH) have received of  midwives having to do their vital work by candle light, or torchlight during  frequent, unpredictable power cuts. How the target is to be reached is detailed under 'Achieving the Improvement' below.

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The Challenge

The challenge facing Bill (76) will be to walk up the stairs to the second floor (674 steps, 116m), then walk back down. This will then be followed by walking a further 11.5km (7 miles) taking in Place du Trocadero, Place Victor Hugo, the Arc de Triomphe, The Champs-Élysées to the Palace de la Concorde, through the Jardin des Tuileries to the Musée du Louvre, returning to the tower, crossing each of the nine intervening bridges in turn: Pont des Arts, Pont du Carousel, Pont Royal, Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, Pont de la Concorde, Pont Alexandre III, Pont des Invalides, Pont de l'Alma, Passerelle Debilly and before finally arriving back on the south bank via the Pont d'Iéna. Bill did consider making one of the crossing's a swim, but from recent Olympic Games experience it is known that pollution levels can rise above safe levels after rain in the summer months, so to try it in October would be insane.

 

Target time for the whole challenge will be three hours, from the start of the climb to arriving back at the tower.​

Target to raise: $1200. (USD)

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Please note that all money raised will go to the hospital for this project - the cost of Bill and his wife going to, and staying in Paris is entirely at their own expense.

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