Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Building Lives is a not for profit organisation that gives young people from socially deprived backgrounds an apprenticeship, a job and a chance. For computer says no reasons they have lost their funding and need £400,000 to rescue the jobs of 200 kids until new funding is in place later this year. 

To help them I am going to try to climb Mont Blanc this Summer. I've never done any mountaineering before so this is uncharted territory for me. I'm going with my son Niall and three other friends on an organised trip. I've started training and trying to lose weight! It's a six day crash course in mountaineering culminating in a dash for the summit weather permitting so the less lard I have to drag up the mountain the better!  I'm doing it with a company called Mont Blanc Guides who seem very experienced. 

I was planning to do the climb anyway and hadn't intended to do it for charity, but Building Lives is such a great organisation and they need all the help they can get, so I'm getting the begging bowl out.

The money will go to the Lighthouse Club education fund who will pass the money on Building Lives. 

So the outcome was we never made it up Mont Blanc. Three people were killed on Mont Blanc while we were there and our guides were adamant that we shouldn't attempt the summit. Having said that, this was the most physically and mentally challenging thing I have ever done. I'm not sure if I was fit enough, it certainly didn't help that I was still recovering from a chest infection which also affected my preparation. So I don't know if I would have made it anyway. Anyone who wants their money back is welcome - I will gladly refund it. Having said that Building Lives lives on, and it looks like it will have a positive outcome. For me, I'm not one who walks away from a challenge so I will try again in the next 12 months, forewarned is forearmed. So watch this space!