• Coolie trains six hours every day to prepare himself for the hike. Photos by Marta Pascual Juanola

A LOCAL blinds and curtains installer is determined to play the world’s highest-ever footy game atop Mount Kilimanjaro — Africa’s highest (and most arduous) peak.

“Coolie” is joining Conquer Kili 2015, an adventure organised by Telethon Adventures that aims to raixe $150,000 for childhood brain cancer research. “They are the only NGO where 100 per cent money goes to the cause — no taxes for admin or anything,” he says.

Coolie is leaving September 3 to Tanzania, where he hopes to see his daily training pay off.  The team will spend 13 days in the mountain’s surrounds, travelling from vast green jungle with humid 40-degree heat to isolated mountain regions below 20.

Jumpers, jackets and a footy have been designed especially to resist low air pressure and cold temperatures.

“It’s going to be a struggle,” Coolie told the Herald. “It’s hard to breathe up there. But I think I’ll make it. I’m always fighting.”

Coolie is a Bosnian refugee who says he’s determined to keep repaying Australia for giving him a new life: “Now it’s about giving it back, helping,” he says. Coolie will hold his annual Coolico dinner and dance August 15 to raise funds. “Tickets fly,” he says.

by MARTA PASCUAL JUANOLA