KOTA KINABALU, 12 July 2019: Two-time Everest climber Ravichandran Tharumalingam, often simply called “Ravi Everest,” will join the California-based charity Coalition Duchenne for its 9th Annual Expedition Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, 20 to 22 July.
Coalition Duchenne raises awareness and funding for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and was founded by Sabahan Catherine Jayasuriya.
Jayasuriya, who lives in California, grew up in Kota Kinabalu and always dreamed of taking her children to the summit of its sentinel mountain.
Her son, Dusty Brandom, has Duchenne and would never make the climb. At 26, Dusty is in a wheelchair and severely impacted by the muscle wasting disease, but he has inspired Ravi Everest to become involved with the cause.
Ravi Everest has climbed mountains all over the world proudly flying the Malaysian flag. He is currently working on the “Seven Summits Challenge,” which is a quest to climb the highest mountains on each continent, as well as the “Eight Thousander” challenge of climbing all 14 mountains over 8,000 metres. To top it all he is committed to achieving the “Grand Slam,” which adds the North Pole and the South Pole to the Seven Summits.
He has successfully conquered Mt. Everest twice, once in 2006 and again in 2007.
Dusty and his 93-year-old grandfather, Tan Sri Thomas Jayasuriya, are featured in Catherine Jayasuriya’s award-winning film Dusty’s Trail: Summit of Borneo. The film is the story of Dusty’s journey with Duchenne, and it tells about people coming together from around the world to climb the mountain to raise awareness.
Catherine Jayasuriya started Coalition Duchenne with her son Dusty Brandom in 2011 and the coalition and its founders have been leaders in sponsoring Duchenne research for nearly 20 years.
For more information about the Coalition Duchenne see www.coalitionduchenne.org.
