Sometimes the correct decision is not the popular one!
16
JANUARY, 2025
Judo
Life
Education
Over the past 15 years the families and coaches of Destination Judo have raised around £250,000 for a wide range of charitable causes.
The latest in our series of challenges saw Marc Preston heading off with his ice axe and crampons to Argentina to scale the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas.
Mount Aconcagua is in the Andes, the highest mountain in the Americas – and both the Western and Southern Hemispheres, with a summit elevation of 6,962 metres (In comparison, Ben Nevis is 1,345m and Mount Everest is 8,848m).
Marc joined an expedition in December 2025 for just over 3 weeks to scale the mountain and raise Sponsorship money. As with all Marc’s Charity Challenges he self-funded the trip.
And the children joined in – by doing a sponsored ‘mountain climb’ in class.
We did this to support a charity close to our hearts: Finlay’s Friends.
Our target was to raise £10,000.
The charity was set up in memory of Finlay Bennett who attended Destination Judo’s club in Dunfermline. Finlay died suddenly from meningitis in 2014 at the Yorkhill Children’s Hospital. He was 8.
His family set up Finlay’s Friends shortly afterwards to provide support to families who find themselves in similar situations: families of seriously ill children who have been admitted to hospital in an emergency. They provide ‘comfort kits’ which include essentials to tide over families for the first 24-48 hours – including snacks, toiletries, phone charger, notebook, blanket etc
The charity currently works in 5 children’s hospitals on Scotland.
Mount Aconcagua the hardest challenge to date!
Marc was part of a small team of 4 people – plus their guide, Vito. The team initially spent 2 weeks in the Andes acclimatising, climbing and descending, and preparing for the summit.
Then, at 4am on 16th December, they started their attempt to summit Mount Aconcagua (6,962m).
It did not start well as their Belgian team-mate, Richard, fell foul of altitude sickness: a very serious condition that needed him to be evacuated as it can be life threatening. Then, one of the other team-mates – a very experienced mountaineer from France, decided that he should go on ahead. Marc and Charlie would continue behind him with their guide.
Then, 100m from the summit (approximately 1 hour’s climbing), the guide, Vito broke the bad news that, due to strict summit timings (safety guidelines set to allow sufficient time for descent during daylight, and also to build in contingency for any injuries/accidents) that they couldn’t continue. They had run out of time – just!!! – and, so, with heavy hearts they started the descent back down. They’d come so close!
Marc said afterwards that, although disappointing, from a safety perspective, it was definitely the right decision.
And Jean did summit! However, he was later diagnosed with 2nd degree frost bite and now needs to undergo 3 months intensive treatment to recover – and may lose two of his fingers.
So a really tough journey with some amazing, inspirational people. But they pretty much did it!
Marc hopes that his journey inspires some of our judoka to attempt amazing things. Hopefully one of you will climb to the top one of those days – and be extremely proud of yourself! And in life, you should try hard and challenge yourselves to do amazing things!
And remember, sometimes the right decision, isn’t the most popular. But as long as it’s made for the right reasons, then that’s the main thing.
The team climbed more than 99% of the mountain, and did not give up. Our target was to raise £10,000 for Finlay’s Friends – and we did! At the time of writing, the total stands at £11, 027.
Thank you all so much!
At the time of writing, the total raised stands at £11, 027.
This was a really tough journey, my hardest challenge so far.
So close.