Dentist Alasdair Reid, 52, tackled 19,341ft Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in aid of the Beatson Pebble Appeal, which is backed by the Evening Times.
Mr Reid's daughter Morvern, 24, is being treated for ovarian cancer at the Beatson West Of Scotland Cancer Centre at Gartnavel, Glasgow.
After she was diagnosed, her family, from Paisley, decided to raise as much as they could for the £10million campaign to build a new Cancer Research Centre.
Although the appeal has not yet reached its target, the centre is already being constructed at the Glasgow University Campus in the Garscube Estate. It will be the first purpose-built facility of its kind in Scotland.
Mr Reid, a partner at Chartwell Dental Care in Bearsden, near Glasgow, decided he wanted to set himself a big challenge – and came up with the idea of tackling the mountain.
He was joined by friends Stuart Craig, 51, from Auchinleck, Ayrshire, and nephew Graeme Reid, 29, from Johannesburg, South Africa.
They had hoped to raise £10,000 – but the money is still coming in and it is now at £23,000.
Mr Reid said: "The final ascent was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.
"You get up at midnight and it is a seven-hour walk straight to the top. What made it worse was that it had been snowing.
"It wasn't African weather – it was raining every day and we hit the snowline on day three and had to scrape the ice off the tents. We had porters, but the last bit you have to do on your own – luckily nobody in our group got altitude sickness.
"We were thrown together with another eight people but it was great.
"We ate at night in the mess tent and were in bed by half past eight and up at six o'clock. We saw a chunk of Tanzania we would never have seen before.
"We can't believe the money just keeps coming in. We are delighted."
As reported in the Evening Times in August, Morvern McDonald, 24, first realised something was wrong when her Glasgow Caledonian University netball coach cheekily asked her if she could be pregnant.
Morvern, a football physiotherapist who was working part-time for St Mirren's Under-19 team after graduating last year, had thought her bloated stomach was due to eating too much over Christmas.
But after going for medical tests she was told she had a 10-inch tumour growing in her right ovary.
Morvern, who has three sisters, Susie, 17, Kirsty, 15, Fiona 10 and a brother, Andrew, 19, has just finished chemotherapy at the Teenage Cancer Trust unit at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre as she fights the disease, which usually affects much older women.
Her father said: "Morvern's doing not too badly. She has finished her scheduled chemotherapy and has had a CT scan and next week is getting an MRI scan.
"If everything is as we would like it to be she will go on to three monthly checks. She is immensely positive."
The rest of Morvern's family and friends have also taken on the fundraising challenge.
Her mum Pamela, 50, who works at Castlehead High, Paisley, walked the Great Glen from Inverness to Fort William with her friends, and the family has also been given other donations.
Mr Reid said: "A dental patient came in and said he had done the Glasgow 10K, then the half-marathon and handed me £1000.
"One of my wife's co-workers retired and had a big party but no presents, just donations."
Morvern said: "It has been really important and given us something to focus on. The fact we are doing it for a cause that's going to help with finding cures is a great thing."
Lindsey Donald, development officer for the Beatson Pebble Appeal, said: "We have been overwhelmed by the support, commitment and enthusiasm shown by the Reid family. To raise £23,000 is a remarkable achievement.
"To date we have raised more than £9.3m of the £10m required and could not have done so without the support of a great many donors, such as the Reids.
"Building work is due for completion in autumn 2012."
n To help, see the website: www.justgiving.com/morvern4thebeatson
sarah.swain@ eveningtimes.co.uk
By SARAH SWAIN
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