She survived eight heart attacks, a triple bypass surgery and a stroke, and now wants to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in honour of heart disease and cancer survivors like herself.
Gqeberha jewellery designer Jenni Gault, 55, knows no limits when it comes to conquering life’s mountains — both literal and figurative.
Gault was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago and is undergoing chemotherapy.
Despite her health challenges, the designer has committed to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in October to not only honour people battling life-threatening illnesses but inspire others to conquer their own figurative mountains and lead healthy lifestyles.
She said the idea came to her earlier in 2021 and she subsequently started fundraising in March.
“What I want to do is promote heart disease [awareness] especially during Covid-19 where people are sitting at home in zoom meetings, watching TV and eating without walking as much as they used to.
“My message is that people should exercise as much as they can to keep healthy.
“And I want women to look at me and say if I can do it then so can they,” she said.
In line with her goal to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the heart and stroke foundation ambassador on Wednesday launched the #goingbraless fundraising campaign, encouraging women to donate bras and money for breast cancer survivors.
A percentage of the proceeds will go towards the Cansa Care charity and the rest towards Gault’s Kilimanjaro trip.
Women are invited to donate their gently-worn bras with a R50 accompanying donation at the Old Grey pub in Mill Park.
The bras will be displayed at the pub for a month where men will be challenged to donate R50 to have them taken down or — in the likely event that they will not want them taken down — to simply support the cause.
The campaign will run until the end of September.
Gault said her fundraiser for the trip had already received an outpouring of support from the public.
She still requires R28,000.
“Initially the cost for the whole trip was R75,000, but I have received donations for a lot of stuff I’ll need.” .
Gault was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 during her annual mammogram screening.
“I religiously go for my mammogram every year and in 2018, doctors found an 18mm by 16mm lobular tumour that was growing rapidly.
“They took the lump out and said it was malignant so I had a double mastectomy. Now I’m on ongoing chemotherapy,” she said.
She said her 2017 mammogram had shown no cause for concern and she could not feel the lump when she examined herself.
Before her diagnosis, Gault supported various cancer and other chronic disease charities.
“I always thought it would be so wrong to support a cancer charity and not constantly have my mammograms and I am so glad I did,” she said.
She encouraged women to talk about breast care for awareness purposes and hopefully more women would learn the importance of examining their own bodies and going for professional screenings.
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