A father and his two daughters will brave the Patagonian wilderness to raise funds for a centre that proved invaluable to their wife and mother in the last months of her life.
Setting off in March, Mark Phillips, 48, along with daughters Summer, 15, and Lacey, 13, will leave their home in Radlett to hike over 80km (50 miles) across mountains, glaciers and valleys in southern Chile.
The family’s “amazing, beautiful” mum, Natalie, 43, was diagnosed in early 2020 with MS, which is treatable but not curable. She was more recently diagnosed with motor neurone disease, for which there is no cure, and died on December 5.
Speaking to the JC shortly before her death, Mark said: “She is a person who is full of life. She walks into a room, and everyone knows she’s there. She’s a singing and dancing, jazz-hands kind of a person. The life of the party.
“It makes her illness even harder for her, because she can no longer be the person who she is because of it.”
Her condition was “manageable” for the first couple of years, Mark said, but the disease proved very aggressive and none of the many treatments the family tried was successful in slowing her decline.
In the last six months, Natalie, though still compos mentis, had become entirely bedridden, unable to move her arms or legs. She was often on a ventilator due to difficulty breathing and so required a full-time carer.
“It’s so hard on so many levels,” Mark said. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see your wife, to see your kids’ mum, go through this and be helpless to stop it.”
The suggestion for Patagonia came about when Summer, who had begun learning about the region in school, was researching its topography for a class project, when she came across the physically taxing W Trek.
“When I phoned up the organisers of the W Trek, they told me they had only three spaces left and that the minimum age was 13 [the age of Lacey],” Mark said. “It was as if the stars aligned.”
While on the hike, which they will be completing over six days, they will spend three nights sleeping in small cabins that are strategically located along the route, and three nights camping under the stars.
As a family, they are “not at all” long-distance trekkers and so have just begun to train for the hike by going for longer and longer walks, carrying bricks in their rucksacks to imitate all the gear they will have to carry.
“The girls play performance-level netball as part of a team. They’re super-fit. I’m more concerned about me,” Mark said.
The physical therapy clinic the family is raising money for, Chilterns Neuro Centre, supported Natalie throughout her illness, providing her access to therapy, physiotherapy and gym equipment designed for people with MS.
“All the staff are honestly so helpful, and it is the loveliest place. You don’t even know about these small incredible places until you need them,” Mark said.
The trio have so far raised more than 90 per cent of their fundraising goal of £20,000, mostly through calling friends and family.
This month, Summer and Lacey will be throwing an entry-fee party for to raise further funds.
“It will be a challenge, but we are determined,” Mark said, “We’re walking for all the people who can’t.”
To donate, go to: justgiving.com/page/phillipsfamilypatagonia-1 or click here
chilternsneurocentre.org/
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