Vinson

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough!

Laurie Kelley January 29, 2018
Maybe you’ve heard our amazing news about our amazing Chris Bombardier! The FIRST person with hemophilia to summit Mt. Everest, Mt. Vinson… and well, all Seven Summits!
Chris sits on the board of Save One Life, the nonprofit that I founded, and he shares my love of mountains and my passion for helping people with hemophilia suffering without treatment in developing countries. Together, we are trying to improve their lives.
Our deepest thanks go to Chris, and also to Octapharma, because this manufacturer of human protein products funded these last two mountain climbs, which are expensive and out of reach of most people. Octapharma helped make this dream come true. It was a true team effort! I promised them I’d post this press release. Please read and show your appreciation to them as well!
Octapharma Support Enables Bombardier to Climb Mount Vinson, Becoming First Hemophiliac to Ascend the Seven Summits 

Octapharma Partnership with Mountain Climber will Culminate with 
Release of Documentary Bombardier Blood Later This Year 

HOBOKEN, N.J. (January 25, 2018) – Mountain climber Chris Bombardier of Denver, Colorado on January 6th became the first hemophiliac to climb the Seven Summits of the world with his successful climb of Mount Vinson in Antarctica, a journey made possible with a grant from Octapharma USA. The Seven Summits, the highest peak on each continent, are a feat just over 400 people can claim. 
Octapharma USA also sponsored Bombardier’s climb in 2017 up Mount Everest, the historic mountain in Nepal. Octapharma’s partnership with the mountain climber also includes sponsorship of Bombardier Blood, a documentary scheduled for release later this year that will tell his inspirational story. 
“It was incredible to have Octapharma as a partner on this climb as well,” said Bombardier. “Climbing the 16,050 feet of Mount Vinson was the last climb in my dream of completing the Seven Summits. I could not have made it without the support of Octapharma, Save One Life and countless others. Together, we have shown the world what can be achieved with the proper support and medical treatment.” 
Octapharma USA President Flemming Nielsen said that Bombardier’s journey has inspired thousands of people around the world. 
“Chris has shown all of us that anything is possible if we keep working toward our dreams,” said Nielsen. “Everyone at Octapharma congratulates Chris on this incredible accomplishment. It has been an honor for Octapharma to support his mission and we want him to know that our team has been cheering him on with every step of this incredible journey.” 
Editing for Bombardier Blood will wrap in the spring, according to Believe Limited CEO Patrick James Lynch, the documentary’s director and a filmmaker with severe Hemophilia. 
“We are so proud of Chris for showing the world what people with Hemophilia are capable of when they have access to medication,” said Lynch. “With proper medical care, we can accomplish anything. Believe Limited is grateful to Octapharma for helping to bring this message to people worldwide.” 
Bombardier Blood highlights the disparity in health care in Nepal using Bombardier’s recent Everest summit as a backdrop. Please visit www.bombardierblood.com for more information and a preview of the documentary. 
About the Octapharma Group 
Headquartered in Lachen, Switzerland, Octapharma is one of the largest human protein products manufacturers in the world and has been committed to patient care and medical innovation since 1983. Its core business is the development and production of human proteins from human plasma and human cell lines. Octapharma employs approximately 7,100 people worldwide to support the treatment of patients in over 113 countries with products across the following therapeutic areas: Hematology (coagulation disorders), Immunotherapy (immune disorders) and Critical Care. The company’s American subsidiary, Octapharma USA, is located in Hoboken, N.J. Octapharma operates two state-of-the-art production sites licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), providing a high level of production flexibility. For more information, please visit www.octapharmausa.com. 
PHOTO CAPTION: 
Mountain climber Chris Bombardier of Denver, Colorado on January 6th became the first hemophiliac to climb the Seven Summits of the world with his successful climb of Mount Vinson in Antarctica, a journey made possible with a grant from Octapharma USA. 
MEDIA CONTACT: 
Fred Feiner 
Yankee Public Relations 
fred@yankeepr.com 
908-425-4878 
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OCTA-0178 

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Octapharma USA, Inc.• 121 River Street, Suite 1201• Hoboken, NJ 07030 • 201-604-1130 • www.octapharmausa.com 

Chris’ Christmas Gift to the World

Laurie Kelley December 24, 2017
If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough. —Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

I’ve never met anyone in my life–and I have met some pretty amazing people in my several careers–who dreamed a dream, set the course, followed through against all odds, and made it happen in the way that Chris Bombardier has. If you met him, and I hope you do, you would be thunderstruck that this shy, extremely humble young man will soon conquer the Seven Summits.

Chris Bombardier

And not just achieving an incredible goal that only about 450 people in the history of the world have ever done. No one has ever done this who has a bleeding disorder. No one might ever repeat this in my lifetime. We are witnessing history in the making! In hemophilia terms, this ranks right up there with landing a man on the moon.

Chris leaves tomorrow, Christmas Day, for the last adventure on this journey that has consumed the last few years of his young life. I interviewed him last week, before the holidays. How did he feel?

“I’m looking forward to my last summit bid—Mt. Vinson. I’m leaving my wife and family on Christmas Day to basically a frozen desert. On December 29, I’ll leave from Chile to fly to the Antarctica continent. I’ll land on Union Glacier, and from there we will get a flight to the mountain base camp, but everything depends on the weather. Base camp is a few miles from the base of Vinson. We’ll stay at camp, sort out our gear, then start the hike.”

I actually traveled with Chris last March when we trekked to Everest base camp, which took 9 days. It was freezing by the time we got to base camp. I stayed three days but Chris had to stay about a month to acclimate, as Everest is 29,000 feet. How long will it take to summit Vinson, which is 16,050 feet?

“It should take us about seven days total. Our challenges this time isn’t the lack of oxygen, like on Everest, but the weather and temperatures. Temperatures can be all over the place, but pretty much it will be below zero all of the time. The wind is the worst here. The wind brings the temperature down, and you can easily get frostbitten.”

With Chris will be his trustworthy guide Ryan Waters, founder and president of Mountain Professionals of Colorado. Ryan’s guided Chris on 5 of the Seven Summits. This one will make it 6! This trip, like the Everest one, is being fully sponsored by Octapharma, which manufactures blood-clotting products like Nuwiq® and wilate®.

What’s even more impressive is that Chris has undertaken these climbs not to make history or for personal glory. He knows that it will gather world-wide attention, but not for himself, but to highlight the inequity in treatment for those with hemophilia in developing countries. He worked in Kenya, before he started his climbs, helping to establish a lab in Eldoret, and what he saw convinced him he had to draw attention to how much people with bleeding disorders suffer. Chris and I met in 2011 at a NACCHO conference; after I gave my talk about our work in developing countries helping people with bleeding disorders, Chris told me he wanted to do the Seven Summits–just a wild dream he had to help bring attention to this problem.  A lover of mountains myself, and avid reader of those who undergo extreme hardship while exploring (David Livingston, I presume?) and achieving (Mallory, because he’s there), and reading everything I could get my hands on related to summiting anything, I told Chris go for it, and I will help in every way humanly possible. He did all the training and work, and I’ve been cheering him on! And Chris joined our board of directors at Save One Life.

Chris wants to dedicate this climb to raising money for our scholarship program. He writes, 

“With your support, I know I can make this climb successful! 

Follow Chris’s adventures here!

“No longer can anyone say that someone with hemophilia can’t climb Everest, Vinson or reach any dream, as long as they have with proper treatment, training and medical care. By standing on these Seven Summits, I hope to show what is possible. I hope by holding the Save One Life banner on each summit we can show the world that only 25% of people living with hemophilia even have access to adequate treatment to chase dreams.  Let’s help everyone aim for their dreams by helping to raise $16,050—the height of Vinson— for our scholarships!”

Chris is doing the hard part; let’s help him achieve this last mountain and goal by raising $16,050! If he can climb Vinson, then we can raise the money!

Watch a message from Chris as he prepares to leave…

Our thanks to Octapharma for sponsoring this incredible, history-making adventure!

 
 
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