It was the challenge of a lifetime: a young Sydney man with arthritis and the world’s highest free standing mountain.
Matthew Leibowitz has ankylosing spondylitis – a debilitating form of arthritis but it wasn’t going to stop him leading 19 people in an inspirational assault on Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro. Among the group were Matthew’s friends – Jonathon Shapiro, Daniel Been, Peter Collins and Jeremy Unger – his rheumatologist, Dr Jim Bertouch, and the Chair of Rheumatology at the University of Sydney, Professor Philip Sambrook, who filmed the trek.
They raised more than $90,000 for Arthritis Australia, proving life’s obstacles, arthritis included, can be overcome with determination and teamwork.
Reviewed and updated September 2014