Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - October 2, 2005
Claire Keeton

Paddy Nhlapo, 35, and Richard Yell, 45, were determined to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to show that people living with HIV can realise their dreams - and on Tuesday they stood on the 5895m peak.

Their ascent is set to make the Guinness Book of Records as the first people living openly with HIV to reach the top.

A third of the 18 climbers attempting to reach the summit on Tuesday did not make it. Nhlapo said on Thursday, when the pair arrived back in Johannesburg: "We saw lots of people turning back and being carried down on stretchers by rescue teams.

"Only one reason kept me going - I wanted to send a message that HIV-positive people are also human beings with goals, aspirations and dreams."

Nhlapo from Johannesburg, who was seriously ill earlier this year, has been living with HIV for 14 years and his friend Yell, from Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape, has been for nine years.

Yell said: "I knew it was a challenge and I wanted to show the world we are the same as everyone else. I wanted to conquer my own mountain, and I did."

Exhausted, the pair said that the six-day climb had been even harder than they had expected.

Nhlapo said that at the end of the first day he wondered how he was going to make it to the top.

He said: "The summit night was gruelling, extremely windy and cold. My water and chocolate bar froze as I left the tent and my hands were frozen. I was crying from the pain.

"My legs were saying no and I couldn't breathe properly. I had to push hard to reach the peak."

On the summit he and Yell planted a time capsule recording that South Africa had 5.3 million people living with HIV.

Yell said: "We also wrapped a red ribbon [for Aids] around the Uhuru sign. The wind was blowing and I was crying."

Yell said that while he was on the mountain he thought about DJ Khabzela, the popular Yfm DJ who spoke publicly about living with HIV and died from Aids last year.

He added: "The altitude also affected my brain and I couldn't answer when people asked how I felt. I didn't know how I felt."

Now, however, Yell is exhilarated about the achievement and hopes to return to Kilimanjaro with a group of people living with HIV in a year's time.

The pair committed themselves to the climb as part of their pledge for the Khomanani Pledge-a-thon campaign, which is calling on all South Africans to take action in the face of HIV/Aids, TB and sexually transmitted diseases.

The climb will be broadcast on SABC2 on October 9, the Khomanani Pledge-a-thon day.

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