Martin Booth: My trekking story

“I’ve brought back amazing memories and made life-long friends from all of my trekking expeditions”

I am a nurse with over 35 years’ experience. I initially worked as Learning Disabilities Nurse in the NHS for the first 26 years. In 2011, I ended up in a having a mental health breakdown and was diagnosed with PTSD following an incident at work. I ended up having a full year off sick and spending time in a private mental health hospital. 

Following this, I decided to set myself some life changing decisions.

As a long-term goal, I set my self a hard target: to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.  I never put a date on this challenge, but this was my dream. 

I also set myself medium-term goals such as to be able to work again, maybe not as a nurse as I had been doing for the previous 25 years. I put a loose target of two years on this goal.  

Finally, I set myself several short-term goals, such as getting through my stay in hospital and being able to return home and enjoy Christmas.

When my mental health began to improve, I joined a walking group and one of the members volunteered at the Marie Curie Hospice, Bradford in their gardens. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2013 and the walking group adopted Marie Curie as their charity. 

Then in 2014 came a chance to trek the Inca Trail and I jumped at this opportunity. This wasn’t quite Kilimanjaro, but I thought it would be a good start!

After the trek, I gave an interview for the Marie Curie magazine talking about my experience. The trek was one of the most physically and mentally demanding challenges I had done in my life, but if anyone want to do it, I’d love to go on the next one with them!

I became hooked. My mother sadly died in June 2014 which spurred me on, and I was glad that I had signed up for the Sri Lanka Trek (November 2015). After that, the next Marie Curie trek was Costa Rica (November 2017).

Before Costa Rica, I found out that a friend was organising a trek up Mount Kilimanjaro in July 2017. I ended up doing two treks in a year and I finally achieved my long-term goal.

My mental health problems are behind me now, and up to this point I have raised over £20,000 for Marie Curie.

In January 2020 I continued my amazing adventures and took part, along with 55 others, in the Marie Curie trek to Nepal. In doing so I made several more amazing friends, experienced fabulous views, gained knowledge of another remarkable country and got involved in the local culture and traditions.  Together the group raised over £250,000 in total for Marie Curie!

I’ve brought back amazing memories and made life-long friends from all of my trekking expeditions. I keep in touch with my fellow trekkers and support staff from the various countries I’ve visited.

Since returning from my fantastic Nepal experience, I have now signed up for the Borneo Jungle Survival Trek in May 2022. Bring it on!

To find out more about our overseas challenges, visit: www.mariecurie.org.uk/overseas