They will climb Everest to save a child

Dubai - The team aims to raise $40,000 (Dh146,800) to fund the treatment expenses of Christa, a two-year-old cancer patient

A team of UAE-based Lebanese athletes are ready to take an Everest Marathon to raise money for a cancer-struck two-year-old patient.
The 'Omni-Athletes' comprising Moustapha and Mazen Mroueh and their friend Dani Afiouni will start by climbing to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal that lies at an altitude of about 5,300 metres before running for 60km up the mountain. Amin Maalouf, a fourth member, will join them for the climb.
They flew to Kathmandu on Friday to start the run on the earth's highest mountain on Sunday. The team is looking to raise $40,000 (Dh146,800) to fund the treatment expenses of Christa, a two-year-old cancer patient at the Children's Cancer Center in Lebanon.
Through it, the Omni Athletes will be attempting to be the first Lebanese and Arabs to achieve such a feat.
While the team members are no strangers to intense physical challenges, Moustapha Mroueh, Visa Middle East finance director by profession, said the journey this time is harder as it combines the acts of mountaineering and running.
"The difficulty this time will not only be in the long-distance running, but will be the altitude. Running on a high altitude won't be easy because the oxygen level up there will be around half of what we get at sea level," said Mroueh, noting that the team will also have to kick up clouds of dust on the dry trail.
Starting their grueling annual activities in 2013, the athletes returned last year from a marathon across the icy expanses of the North Pole.
The North Pole Marathon is certified by the Guinness World Records as being the "Northernmost Marathon on Earth".
In early 2015, they became the first Arabs to run the 777 challenge - seven marathons in seven days on seven continents - to raise money for a cancer-struck one-year-old Syrian refugee from the city of Daraa. Additionally, they've climbed Mont Blanc and several other mountains.
The team started their intense training for the upcoming challenge since last September. Their main location was Wadi Shawka that allows them to climb hills and run for long distances through the desert. "We run up and down on small mountains so we get used to the terrain, which is almost the same as the one we will experience on Mount Everest," said Mroueh.
The team also performed a lot of stairs climbing on skyscrapers to increase their stamina. To get acclimatised, Mroueh said they also performed altitude training - hypoxic training - that involved keeping in a hypoxic tent to simulate a higher altitude with reduced oxygen to cause the body to adapt to the lower oxygen faced on mountains.
His brother Mazen, who recently moved to the Netherlands, has already finished 20 marathons in preparation for the challenge, and Dani climbed Aconcagua mountains in January, the highest mountain outside Asia with an altitude of about 6,900m.
With such commitment, Mroueh said the team's main motivation is giving back to society.
"Besides getting to adopt healthier lifestyles, it is that feeling of satisfaction when you finish such achievements," he said.
"We also noticed how much attention these events attract, and that's why we always do them for a cause and desire to give back to society."
To support the team's cause in funding Christa's treatment, people can visit www.cccl.org.lb/EverestMarathon.php
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com