A Woman’s Journey: Destination Mount Everest
BY NORA ALFAIZ (Oasis Magazine's Latest Issue - In stores & Online > for the full article and images)
How far would you go for someone you love? A typical response would be that the sky is the limit. For a certain group of women, however, reaching the sky is merely one of the ways of expressing their love. Last May, a fellowship of ten Saudi women climbed to the cotton cloud surrounded Mount Everest Base Camp in an attempt to raise awareness about a topic that rose from their hearts. The women wound up swirling mountains and frail suspension bridges, befriended shy-faced yet mirthful children, stepped aside for large yaks that owned the steep and narrow roads, and kept going even when the winds were too brutal and climbing up felt like an endless effort. To them, the difficulties they had to face were but validations of their support for a family or friend who had to bear with bleaker journeys in their fight with breast cancer.
The swirling mountains on the way to Everest Base Camp
Hanging the official 'A Woman's Journey: Destination Mount Everest' t-Shirt on the ceiling of an Everest cafe
Accompanied by yaks on the winding roads that were just the beginning of the journey
Documentary in the making
Oasis Magazine on the way to Everest Base Camp
Taking a break
1000 more meters to go....
The courageous campaign was titled “A Woman’s Journey: Destination Mount Everest.” An audience that was first introduced to the title usually wondered what the link between the destination and the disease was. The confusion in the campaign’s case was deliberate, because confusion led to curiosity and curiosity helped raise more awareness as to how having a healthier lifestyle might help fight off cancer.
Yet, the campaign had an unsubtle philosophy underlying its chosen title. “The journey a woman undertakes in terms of diagnoses and treatment is as difficult and daunting as a trip up a mountain, which was why we chose Everest to represent that journey. Our group had the opportunity to prepare ourselves emotionally and physically, which is a luxury a breast cancer patient doesn’t have.” The woman behind the clarifying statement and mission was HRH Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, who, on a side note, helped break the Guinness World Record by forming a female pink ribbon chain back in 2010.
This year, Princess Reema yearned for a different way of supporting the cause, which was when she joined forces with Hatun Madani, Alya Sa’ad, Mona Shahab, Noura Bouzo, Lina Al Meena, Samaher Mously, Asma Al-Ghalib, Mashael AlHegelan, Raha Moharrak and Hasna’a Mokhtar. The women underwent months of intense physical training in preparation for their trip and had to mentally prepare for the extreme weather conditions and stripped down luxuries for the sake of supporting breast cancer strugglers. Of course, a worthy cause wasn’t going to go unnoticed, which was why the group was supported by the Saudi Ministries of Health and Education, a vast selection of sponsors, and was the reason behind our interest in knowing more about the campaign and an individual who represents these ten females.
Oasis interviews Princess Reema:
Your group members are all females and your campaign raises awareness of women’s breast cancer. Men get breast cancer as well, so why not raise awareness to that?
We chose a group of ladies to serve as a continuation of the Woman’s Stand campaign that broke the Guinness World record in 2010. While that was a call to stand shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with breast cancer patients and survivors, this campaign is a call to mobilize ourselves. Movement and fitness are vital to a strong body and that message is universal.
Your mission will not go unwatched since a film crew is accompanied you to shoot a documentary. What is the necessity behind that and where will your documentary be available?
We thought of documenting our trip to allow others to see the hardships that the climbers went through as a mirror to the reality of our lives back home. Furthermore, we wanted to show that if you believe in your cause you can overcome pain and exhaustion. This is not a vanity trip; it is not comfortable and it is also not anything any of us ever thought we would do. We all went on behalf of someone who suffered and we did this to honor them.
Read the full interview and see more images in Oasis Magazine's Latest Issue - In stores & Online
More images here
To take on the same the journey that the ladies went through, learn the details of the day-today schedule here
To take on the same the journey that the ladies went through, learn the details of the day-today schedule here
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