For reasons probably best known only to myself (ie I'm a bit crazy) I will be running Edinburgh Marathon (all 26.2 miles) on May 23rd 2010. 

I am hoping to raise a significant sum for "The Himalayan Trust", a charity founded by Sir Edmund Hillary to help local communities in the mountianous regions of Nepal.  The Trustees are all volunteers. They receive no money and pay all their own travel costs to Nepal and elsewhere meaning every penny you donate will buy materials in Nepal for people who need them!

Since inception The Himalayan Trust has been governed by 5 guiding principles:

1. To focus on basic infrastructure
Hillary wanted to give the Sherpas the basic resources to help them help themselves. So he supported projects that developed education, basic health, and forestry programmes to rejuvenate their natural resources.

2. To only do what was requested by the Sherpas
Hillary wanted to avoid giving things that weren't really wanted. He insisted that all projects originated from a specific request by a group or community of local people.

3. To involve the Sherpas themselves in the work - "Self Help"
As well as further demonstrating the relevance of a project, the Sherpas own involvement would make the money go further. So if they wanted a new school .... "Fine, the Trust will buy the materials, but you carry them in on your backs and help build it!".

4. To minimise all unnecessary costs
The Trust was to be staffed by volunteers. Overheads would (apart from a skeleton, locally employed, project management team on the ground) be eliminated.

5. Direct transfer of funds
The money would be carried direct to Nepal - originally by Hillary himself. there would be no leakage through the system... the money would flow literally from a fund raiser event directly to buy materials in Nepal.

For further information please see: http://www.himalayantrust.co.uk/index.phtml