Galwayman’s Everest trek in memory of stillborn niece

Loughrea man Mark O’Malley had long harboured dreams of trekking to the Everest Base Camp.

A keen hill walker who regularly ascends the mountains of Connemara and explores the plains of the Burren, he finally made plans to do the trip, roping his girlfriend Louise Stevenson into the Nepalese adventure.

During their lengthy preparations for the fifteen-day hike, their family was struck by tragedy.

On September 21 last year, his sister gave birth to a stillborn daughter. Caoimhe was the third child of Joan and Tim Ling, also from Loughrea.

“It was devastating for us all as a family,” Mark recalls.

In the hospital, they were presented with a memory box from Féileacáin, a support group formed by parents who have endured a stillbirth or neonatal death.

“The organisation was so supportive of Joan and Tim; they even visited her workplace before she returned and had a meeting with her colleagues to talk through the best way of responding,” explained Mark.

“They are a small group but they hold support meetings around the country and organise these memory boxes which proved so valuable in remembering their little darling.”

Mark and Louise decided to dedicate their trek in memory of baby Caoimhe and raise money for the volunteer organisation.

They set up a fundraising page, expecting to raise around €500. They also set their sights on a strict training regime.

Mark took to the gym with a zeal worthy of a professional athlete in order to lose body fat, gain muscle and build up leg strength.

Over ten months he lost a phenomenal two-and-a-half stone.

“Louise is a lot fitter than me, she had to put on a stone in order to lose it again. She was eating everything I wasn’t.”

The pair flew from Katmandu to Lukla, one of the most dangerous runways in the world as it sits on a 60-degree gradient.

They joined a tour group of ten from Australia, Canada, England and Sweden. Over the 15-day journey, they walked between five and eight hours a day as temperatures dipped to minus 20 degrees, staying in hostels along the route at night.

“It was very difficult. A couple of days in the centre were really, really long. The cold and the altitude took their toll, there were nose bleeds, headaches, nausea, vomiting. We had only two showers over 15 days. It was tougher than we thought,” recalls Mark.

They climbed to a height of 5,600 metres, and the higher they ascended, the tougher it got.

“The last two-and-a-half miles took ages. You were just shuffling along on the ground yet you feel like you’re running you’re so out of breath.”

When they finally got to base camp, the staggering height of Everest was truly a sight to behold. Any secret notions of ever conquering the Himalayan giant were well and truly discarded.

“The size of the mountain is enormous. It’s beyond extreme.”

He also had to retain another secret for a while longer. Inside his backpack lay an engagement ring. “I was going to do it on the mountain but decided to keep that moment for Caoimhe. Instead I brought her to the Monkey Temple in Katmandu and asked here there on the way back.”

Of course Louise said yes and the couple has set a date for their nuptials next September.

So the trip has been a huge success in every respect. After paying the €5,000 cost of the adventure themselves, they have raised €4,158 in aid of Féileacáin, with donations from friends, work colleagues and strangers touched by their family’s story.

It has given Mark a real taste for further extreme treks and he hopes to do another one on a different summit in Nepal.

Not so his future missus. “The only trekking Louise is doing is up the aisle,” he laughs.

A Féileacáin meeting takes place in the Harbour Hotel, Galway on October 7. Contact 085 2496464.