Kilimanjaro Awaits Woman With Big Heart

Sue Ahrend gets paid and also volunteers to help people.

So for her summer vacation, it’s small wonder that she’s going to climb a big peak to help someone else.

Ahrend, 59, leaves town Friday to join six other people on a trek up Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds for cancer research.

“I’m actually doing this in honor of my mom,” she said.

Ahrend’s mother, Maida Elliott, died five years ago of multiple myeloma.

“My mother and I were pretty close,” Ahrend said.

By trade, Ahrend is a nurse. She currently works in the Lutheran Medical Center emergency room.

Ahrend has lived all over the country and much of the world. Her dad was in the Air Force. The family settled in Arkansas after he retired and Ahrend went to the University of Arkansas.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, she began making the rounds at hospitals and clinics in the United States.

“I’ve always loved the mountains,” she said. “That’s why I live in Colorado. I hike and bike and spend a lot of time outdoors.”

In her off time, she’s the medical director for the Alpine Rescue Team in Evergreen.

She read about the Climb to Fight Breast Cancer in an outdoors magazine and accepted the challenge of raising at least $10,000 to qualify for the climb.

“I’ve raised $11,500,” she said. “I hope the money that we’ve raised will enable the researchers to find new ways to fight cancer. If we can make a difference in anybody’s life, this is an awesome way to do it.”

Ahrend has wanted to climb Kilimanjaro as long as she can remember. It’s a six-day hike up the Machame Trail to the 19,300- foot summit.

Ahrend has been in Africa before, volunteering with other medical workers at a refugee camp in Zaire.

“I got a glimpse (of the mountain) in 1994,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to go back.”

To prepare, Ahrend has increased her workouts.

“I train a lot anyway because of the stuff I do,” she said. “I did a lot of hiking this summer. I climbed a couple of Fourteeners and some 13,000 (-foot) peaks. In addition, I do kickboxing and a little bit of weight training.”

It’s too late to help her mom, so Ahrend is doing the climb in the hope that someone else’s mother is spared because of better research.

She said her mom’s ordeal with cancer has made her a better nurse.

“I’ve taken care of hundreds, thousands of cancer patients,” she said. “I never had a personal loss like this. Whenever people lose loved ones, I have a better empathy. Whatever I can do to help, I’d like to do that.”

She’s paying tribute to her mom in another way, too.

“I have a picture of her I’m carrying in my backpack,” she said.