Recent Graduate and Blind Cancer Survivor Summits Mount Kilimanjaro
After nearly two years of planning, months of training, and countless hours raising funds for charity, Tim Conners was the tallest man on the African continent when he finally stood atop the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro this past weekend.
Conners, a member of the Class of 2017, lost his sight from cancer as a teenager, and endured further physical tolls as he fought the disease. He set out for Tanzania on May 22, the day after he graduated from Ithaca College. After some time volunteering at a school for the blind, Conners and his small team—led by a professional guide from the Arizona-based K2 Adventures Foundation—started up “Kili.”
This video still shows Tim Conners, center, approaching the summit of Kilimanjaro. The video was posted on the K2 Adventures Facebook page.
The plan was for nine days on the mountain, with several days of rest sprinkled into the itinerary. On June 3, K2 Adventures updated their Facebook page with an announcement that Conners and his team—which included his father and uncle—had reached the summit.
A few hours later they posted video of Conners achieving his goal.
Conners set out on this trek as a fundraiser for several organizations that were influential in his life following his cancer diagnosis. Late last year, he released his first book, “It’s Impossible Until You Do It: Succeeding in the Face of Adversity.” Sales of the part-autobiography, part-personal philosophy also went toward the fundraising effort.