By Goya Dmytryshchak
Every day, six-year-old Finlay Morgan has to have two insulin injections and five blood tests to manage her type 1 diabetes.
Her father David Morgan will soon leave their Williamstown home to literally climb mountains to raise funds for research into the disease, which has no cure.
He is participating in Diabetes Australia’s 7×7 Challenge, climbing seven summits on seven continents over three years and running seven marathons across the globe.
“I think my partner summarised it beautifully by saying it’s all consuming, [Finlay’s] management from a parental aspect,” Mr Morgan said. “I think the hardest point was when you try to tell a child that you’re going to start injecting them, against their will sometimes, whether they like it or not – it’s just a constant, their body needs it.
“Just recently, she was fine and she’s spirited, she’s active and quite over the top often.
“Then her [insulin] levels will be out and she’s just had three days when she’s barely getting up off the couch.”
Mr Morgan said some mountaineers believed that to conquer the ‘Seven Summits’, Mount Kosciuszko must be included, while others insisted on Mount Carstensz.
To cover all bases, he’s climbing eight summits: Everest on the India/Nepal border, Aconcagua in Argentina, Denali in the US, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Elbrus in Russia, Vinson in Antarctica, Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia and Kosciuszko in Australia.
His first run is the Great Ocean Road Marathon on May 19 and his first climb is Kilimanjaro in June.
For more information and to donate, visit www.soulsearch.com.au
