Father, son hike Kilimanjaro for juvenile diabetes
A father and son team are spending the next 14 days hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro in Arusha, Tanzania to raise money for juvenile diabetes.
Matthew R. Weir, director of the division of nephrology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and his son, M. Ryan Weir, a business banking officer for M&T Bank in Towson, began their journey Thursday and plan to finish on Sept. 16.
The pair became interested in diabetes research after a close family friend was diagnosed with Type 1 of the disease and almost went into a coma.
“It was an eye-opening experience,” M. Ryan Weir said. The Weirs hope to raise a dollar for every foot of the 19,341-foot ascent they climb. The money will go towards research for the Maryland chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.