British-born sisters Kasia (9) and Alicia (6) Sambrook will be climbing the 4km high Mount Kinabalu ? positioned between the Himalayas and New Guinea ? on 14 July to raise funds for the Soi Dogs Foundation.

The girls, who now reside in Phuket, spend many a weekend at the charitable organisation set up to care and find homes for Phuket?s homeless, neglected and abused cats and dogs.
The Sambrook family adopted one such dog; ?Thai? last October. When the foundation first took in 3 year old Thai, he had a broken leg and a troublesome attitude and the family took him home with trepidation.

Frank Sambrook, the father of the girls said, ?Thai was originally very problematic and used to chase Alicia around and bite her bum.?

Fortunately he has stopped doing that now and Alicia can officially reveal that he is now simply, ?really fluffy.?

The girls? love of dogs and their desire to help was the main driving force behind them choosing to climb Mt Kinabalu positioned in the Malaysian state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo.

Day one of the girls? challenge will begin on the morning of 14 July at 1,800m high up the mountain. They will climb for approximately 8-10 hours to reach their resting spot for the night, before getting up at 3am on 15 July to complete the remaining 3 hour trek to reach the 4,095m summit.

The kids have been preparing for their challenge and building up their stamina with a weekly 14km hike up the Big Buddha Hill.

Frank said that he was confident the girls could do it but, ?was worried about the altitude sickness as there?s really no way of knowing how they will react.?

Alicia ? who is a dead-ringer for Alice in Wonderland ? said, ?I?m really, really excited because we will be helping the puppies!?

While big sis Kasia explained why she was such a big fan of dogs, ?They are great because they are fun to play with and help us with things and make us feel safe.?

Co-founder of the Soi Dogs Foundation, Gill Dalley, said that it was wonderful to see such a charitable desire in those so young.

The little ones have already decided that their hard-earned funds will be spent on extending the facilities for the puppies. More individual kennels will be built as well as a communal run.

It costs around one million baht to fund the food, drugs and running costs at the centre.
?At the moment we have to send the animals? blood samples to a human laboratory as we don?t have machines that can adequately check everything,? said Gill.

On top of Gill?s wish list therefore is a Chemistry Blood Analyser (13,000 US dollars).
If you would like to support the girls in their challenge and make a donation you can email Frank directly at homeschoolphuket@yahoo.co.uk or visit www.soidog.org for more information.