In January 2025, we took a group up Kilimanjaro that included a chart-topping rapper, his dad, a reality TV star, and a team climbing for the Down's Syndrome Association. On 26 July, their story arrives on Netflix — Aitch: Don't Be Afraid. Here's the bit the cameras don't linger on: how a trip like this actually gets made.

It started with a normal booking

Most stories like this begin with an agent, a press release, or a production meeting. This one began the way thousands of our trips do: someone booked a place on one of our Open Kilimanjaro challenges.

That someone turned out to be Aitch — climbing for Down's Syndrome Association, where he's an ambassador. It's a cause close to home: his younger sister Gracie has Down's syndrome, and he'd already raised over £50,000 for the DSA with a skydive (just up the road from us, as it happens — small world).

Kilimanjaro was the next step up. Quite a big step.

Once we realised who was joining us, we picked up the phone to Down's Syndrome Association (a charity we work closely with) and asked a simple question: would they like this to become their own bespoke trip? A private departure, built around this team, with the Down's Syndrome Association's name headlining it.

They said yes. And that decision shaped everything that followed.

What a bespoke trip actually means

From the outside, one Kilimanjaro trek looks much like another — there are different routes to consider, of course, but ultimately they're all routes up a mountain to one summit. From where we sit, a bespoke charity trip is a different animal.

It means the departure is built around the group rather than our calendar. The itinerary is shaped with the charity. A leadership team picked for the job in hand — in this case, Vic and Dr Ellen, two of our most experienced Kilimanjaro crew. And behind them, our local team in Tanzania: the guides, cooks and porters we've been working with for twenty-plus years. Not the flashy part of this story, but it's the reason the rest of it works.

There was one more factor. Aitch's team told us early doors that they were planning to film the climb, with the hope that Netflix would pick it up on their return. A trip that's being filmed asks something extra of everyone on it: an understanding that you might be caught in 4K in your most vulnerable moments, and that's one of the main reasons we made the call with the Down's Syndrome Association to run this as a bespoke trip.

Then there's the list nobody sees: flights, permits, insurance, medical screening, kit checks, briefings, safety plans. Our job is to make all of that invisible, so the only thing the group has to think about is putting one foot in front of the other.

The climb

Kilimanjaro doesn't care who you are. Our route — the Machame Route — goes up through rainforest, into the bare rock and thin air of the alpine desert, and finally onto the ice and scree of summit night. And altitude treats a BRIT Award winner exactly the same as everyone else.

The team included Aitch's dad and friends, his wider team, and Freddie Powell of Love Is Blind UK, who was climbing for his big brother Jack, who has Down's Syndrome - a proper mix of fitness levels, mountain experience (mostly none) and reasons for being there. That's true of almost every group we take up Kilimanjaro, and it's what makes the mountain such a leveller. There are no luxury tents, no VIP camps, no secret shortcuts. Some found it harder than others. Some moments were genuinely tough. Aitch has been open about that himself - and, by the looks of the previews, it's exactly those moments the film doesn't shy away from.

That's the honest truth of Kilimanjaro: it's a serious undertaking, the summit is never guaranteed, and the achievement means what it means precisely because of that.

The result

The team set out to raise £70,000 for the Down's Syndrome Association. They raised more than £160,000 — over double the target — funding the DSA's work supporting people with Down's syndrome and their families across the UK.

For us, this is the whole point. The mountain is the mechanism. The fundraising, and what it goes on to do, is the achievement.

Watch the film

Aitch: Don't Be Afraid premieres on Netflix on Sunday 26 July 2026, directed by Aaron Fitzmaurice and Harry Tatem.

We've enjoyed hearing Aitch tell bits of this story all year - on Jamie Laing's Great Company podcast, and squeezed in around the trials on I'm a Celebrity - but this is the full version. It's Aitch's story, Gracie's story, and the Down's Syndrome Association's story, told with the kind of honesty about the climb that anyone who's stood on that mountain will recognise.

The title comes from Gracie: Don't be afraid. And if the film sends people away with anything, we hope it's that. Challenges like this aren't just fundraising machines. They change the people who do them. That's something we get to watch happen on every trip we run, and it never gets old.

We'll be watching on Sunday with the rest of the office. Possibly with popcorn. Definitely with a quiet bit of pride - and keeping an eye out for Vic, Dr Ellen and our Tanzanian crew in the background, doing what they do best. 

Questions people ask about this trip

Who organised Aitch's Kilimanjaro climb? The trek was operated by Discover Adventure, an award-winning UK adventure challenge company that has been running Kilimanjaro treks for over 25 years. Aitch originally booked onto one of our Open challenges; we then worked with the Down's Syndrome Association to run it as a bespoke charity trip.

Which route did Aitch take up Kilimanjaro? The group climbed via the Machame Route, which approaches through rainforest and alpine desert before the final ascent to Uhuru Peak.

How much did Aitch's Kilimanjaro climb raise? The team raised more than £160,000 for the Down's Syndrome Association — over double their original £70,000 target.

What is Aitch: Don't Be Afraid? A Netflix documentary following the January 2025 climb, premiering on 26 July 2026 and directed by Aaron Fitzmaurice and Harry Tatem. It follows Aitch, his family, friends and team as they take on Kilimanjaro for the Down's Syndrome Association.

Can I do the same trek? Yes! We run Open Kilimanjaro challenges throughout the year that anyone can join, fundraising for a charity of your choice or simply for the challenge itself. Charities can also talk to us about their own bespoke trips, like this one.