A SALISBURY man has set his sights on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to give back to the hospice charity that has supported his family.

Mark Jackson, the director of Salisbury-based digital marketing company Blue Bee Solutions, aims to raise more than £2,000 for the Salisbury Hospice and has already started training.

Last year, Mark did a 100k walk along the Jurassic Coast with Action Challenge, participated in the Up the Downs challenge and the Great South Run. In February, Mark plans to climb Mount Snowdon as the penultimate part of his training regime. Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the fourth highest mountain in the world, standing at 4,900 metres (16,100 feet) from its base, over 5.895 meters (19,341 feet) from sea level.

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The planned trek is via the Machame route and will take seven days on the mountain.

Mark said: “I’ve selected this route to, hopefully, avoid altitude sickness and to have the best chance of reaching the summit. All the money raised will go to Salisbury Hospice as I’m self-funding my trip.

“I have decided on Salisbury hospice, as they looked after my wife’s grandad and my own nan so well in their final days and so, I thought this would be a good way to give back to them.”

It costs £2.4 million to run the hospice each year.

Go to justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-jackson80