Chiswick Mum To Take On Icelandic Lava Trek Challenge

Tara Gipp launches fundraiser for cancer research

Local Chiswick resident Tara Gipp has taken a bold step and started a fundraiser on Justgiving for her hike across Iceland, in a bid to raise £3500 for the charity Cancer Research UK. She will undertake a gruelling five-day journey travelling over 58 kilometres from the 18 to the 22 of August.

Each day will entail ten-hour hikes over mountainous terrain and active volcanoes spending nights in makeshifts camps lacking any basic amenities (not even a toilet!).

The fight against cancer is personal for her, as having lost both her mother to pancreatic cancer and one of her dearest friends, she hopes to inspire others to support the fight against cancer. She has already raised over £1700 of her £3500 goal for the charity.

Her continued support of Cancer Research UK over the last eight years is due to its funding of vital research into cancer and the care it provides for cancer patients. She previously worked on teams which helped develop drugs for brain cancer, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer and as the second anniversary of her mother’s passing nears, she has decided to forgo the laboratory in favour of lava plateaus and striking vistas, all in a good cause.

Tara has lived in Chiswick for 6 years and originally moved to the UK from New York, in 2001, settling in Chiswick when having her first child. She is hoping the Chiswick community will support her venture and has thus far received nearly half her funding goal from local residents as well as The Care Dental Group which has donated £250. She hopes that the donations will continue as all proceeds go to the charity.

Aidan Coyle

July 9, 2018