LIMA, Peru—A charity trek to Peru’s ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu by a team of international musicians and 55 cancer survivors and supporters has raised more than US$100,000 to open a cancer care office in the poor Andean nation, a U.S. foundation said Friday.
The Colorado-based Love Hope Strength foundation’s “Peru Rocks” event is the coda to last year’s rock concert at 18,540 feet on the icy slopes of Mount Everest base camp.
Musicians Mike Peters of the British band The Alarm, Miles Zuniga, Tony Scalzo and Joey Shuffield of Fastball, Cy Curnin of the Fixx, Nick Harper and Australian Brien McVernon, all made the 10-day hike up the Inca Trail.
The artists jammed for locals along the way and spread the ashes of a cancer patient who died in May in a ceremony atop the mystic citadel.
They then returned to the capital of Lima for a benefit concert Wednesday.
Co-founder and leukemia survivor Mike Peters said the Lima office will be the foundation’s first chapter in a developing country.
The office will team with a local cancer group to outfit and staff an ambulance that will travel through poor rural provinces diagnosing and treating various types of cancer.
Love Hope Strength expects the fundraising total will rise further as money flows in from trekker donations and Internet and DVD sales.
