Texas man climbs mountains to help kids fighting cancer

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin native returns home from his mountain climb in support of children battling cancer.

President and Founder of the Keep Climbing Foundation, Ryan Kelley came back home to Austin, Texas after completing his 10th annual mountain climb fundraiser supporting local children battling severe illnesses.

Kelley’s nonprofit organization hosts a fundraiser called Climb for the Kids, an annual mountain climb. The first adventure the organization completed was back in 2015.

Since the first climb, the Keep Climbing Foundation has raised $435,000 to support research for kids battling cancer and 100% of the donations that are raised go to the charities the foundation supports.

The biggest climb so far was in 2022, when the group reached the top of Chimborazo and raised $55,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“For the past 10 years, no matter what’s been going on in our personal and professional lives, we’ve made time to Climb for the Kids,” Kelley said.

This year Kelley and the CFTK team decided to go back to how it all started and embark on their very first climb again which took place in 2015. On Aug. 17, they returned to Washington State to take on a dual summit of Mt. Baker and Twin Sisters. 100% of the funds raised went to the first organization they partnered with, Friends of Kids with Cancer.

“Over the years we’ve climbed mountains all over the world, but for our 10^th anniversary we decided it was time to honor where we started, both in Washington state and in our partnership with Friend of Kids With Cancer,” Kelley said.

The overall fundraising goal for this year’s climb is $25,000, so far they have raised $11,531. The climbs are always sponsored by The Home Loan Expert allowing for 100% of the proceeds to go entirely to Friends of Kids with Cancer this year.

Kelley will be joining KXAN LIVE with our Anchor Esmeralda Zamora at 1 p.m. to share more details on how the climb went this year and what is next for the organization.