<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;">In October I will be taking part in a </span><span style="line-height: 115%; color: #c00000; font-size: 16pt;">14 day </span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;">trek along with 7 other colleagues through the Himalaya Mountains (above 5,000m) to help raise money for the </span><span style="line-height: 115%; color: #c00000; font-size: 16pt;">Japan Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund</span><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;">, which is a cause very close to my heart.</span></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;">This will be a very challenging expedition as we accompany Steve and Neil to base camp before they start their adventure of climbing <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a title="5 peaks of the Lunag Massif" href="http://verticalfever.co.uk/informalunagmassifexpedition2011.html">5 peaks of the Lunag Massif</a></span> where 4 have not been climbed before. This of course means the route is extremely remote and extremely difficult.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;">I am taking on this difficult challenge along with my colleagues as we believe the money we all will raise (a target of &pound;3,000 per person) will make a huge difference to lives of those in Japan.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;">The Red Cross helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. They are part of a global voluntary network, responding to conflicts, natural disasters and individual emergencies.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;">After the Tsunami struck, the <a title="Japanese Red Cross" href="http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Emergency-response/Current-emergency-appeals/Japan-Earthquake-Appeal/What-were-doing-in-Japan">Japanese Red Cross</a> reacted by saving lives, providing emergency first aid, food and shelter. Now they are helping the Japanese people to try and rebuild their lives after such a disaster.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;">The money raised by this expedition will be put towards helping to fit out 70,000 temporary homes with an appliance package consisting of key domestic items such as rice cookers, microwave and kettles. These items will benefit around 280,000 people in the three hardest hit prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima and Iwate. This will ease the pressure on the evacuation centres and allow the Japanese people to start rebuilding their life. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: #c00000; font-size: 16pt;">Please sponsor me</span></em></strong><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;"> for this very worthy cause and help make a difference to some lives.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt;">To keep up to date with my preparations leading to the expedition follow me on my blog at <span style="color: #1f497d;"><a href="http://lunag.informa.com/"><span style="color: #0000ff;">http://lunag.informa.com/</span></a></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">&nbsp;</p> </p>