I have foolishly signed up to the tough challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro on March 6th 2011..when I'd much rather be skiing down it!
But it's for an amazing cause - my charity Protection Against Stalking (www.protectionagainststalking.org).
Through my work I sadly came into contact with two inspirational mothers, Tricia Bernal and Carol Faruqui, whose daughter's, Clare and Rana were murdered by their stalkers.
Clare was shot by her stalker, Michael Pech, at Harvey Nichols, dominating the news headlines in 2005. Similarly, after a stalking campaign, Rana was murdered by Stephen Griffiths as she brought in her horse in 2003. Both Clare and Rana reported what was happening to the police and others, but the danger signs were missed. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, refers to this case as Rana was one of her constituents at the time.
Tricia and Carol are incredible women who I instantly wanted to help. Even through their relentless grief and sadness, they can find room to help others, so that the same does not happen to them and to ensure that their daugher's deaths were not in vain.
We therefore set up the national charity Protection Against Stalking to ensure we do as much as we can to help those being stalked, train and educate professionals and society about the dangers of stalking.
We have already helped many victims and we need to do all that we can to raise funds to ensure we can carry out our invaluable work - and in doing so save lives.
Stalking can affect anyone, men and women, and approximately five million people will experience stalking in one year. It could happen to any one of us....so please dig deep and donate now.
Thank you.
