In February 2018, along with a team of fifteen others, I’ll be attempting an extreme alpine challenge: Everest in the Alps, raising money for The Brain Tumour Charity. This will be the second 'Everest' ascent. The last one, in 2015, raised a whopping £3M for The Brain Tumour Charity and its Everest Research Centre.

Those of you who know me well appreciate that I enjoy a good physical and mental endurance challenge having completed dozens of marathons, Ironman’s, mountaineering, and cycling races. With a tremendous team we will be ascending 8,848 metres – the height of the world's largest mountain – on skis over a period of four days. That’s a total of 32 hours climbing (twenty different ascents). Each day we will burn over 10,000 calories, the equivalent to running 12 marathons, 3 back to back per day, for four days

When BMS, the firm who’s business I lead in Canada, started looking at putting together a team, I immediately raised my hand as it’s all in aid of a charity that is very close to my heart

One of the greatest influences of my life was an uncle, who I admired and looked up to.　 He was an exceptional endurance athlete and lived life in a way that I have aspired to follow. We sadly lost Martin at a young age and much too quickly of an advanced brain tumour. My colleague’s nephew, Toby, was diagnosed with a low grade brain tumour at the age of five. Despite surgery and gruelling chemotherapy, the position of the tumour on Toby’s brain stem means that it cannot be fully removed. We all know someone with this terrible disease and together can make advances to combat it with the support of funding like this.

Brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone at any age. What's more, they kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet just 2% of total cancer research funding goes to this area and little is known about causes, which means treatment remains inadequate. So come February, I’ll be taking part in The Everest in the Alps Challenge: The Second Ascent to raise funds for The Brain Tumour Charity. We want to raise money to fund vital research planned by the Everest Research Centre.

This challenge is self-funded, so please rest assured any money raised will go towards the research fund. You can see my team mates’ Just Giving pages at the 'Everest in The Alps Challenge: The Second Ascent' link at the top of the page. As a group of 4, we’re aiming to raise $600,000 so any support is sincerely appreciated