My name is Matthew, and starting on April 27th I will climb Mount Everest in one week. Of course, with the current lockdown situation, I can't ACTUALLY climb Everest, but I CAN climb my stairs. Therefore, I will be climbing the equivalent of Mount Everest`in 7 days.

I will complete all 8,848 vertical metres of Everest by going up the stairs 1,569 times, or 224(ish) times a day. It's going to be physically demanding and gruelling, not least on the carpet, and it will definitely destroy my calves. I'm not just being an idiot for the sake of it though, as it's for a cause close to me.

It's no secret that my home town of Cambridge has a problem with wealth inequality. In 2018, Cambridge was found to be the most unequal city in the UK in a report by Centre for Cities, and it had the fifth lowest score in the Social Mobility Scale of all local authorities across the UK. A lack of affordable housing, a rise in the number of luxury flats built in the city, and the effects of austerity and cuts to benefits has made Cambridge an incredibly unaffordable place to live for working class people. Whilst the University and its colleges have a combined wealth of £9.54 billion, the bottom 20% of people living in the city take just 2% of the income generated in the city. Whilst 4,700 tech and life sciences companies based in Cambridge generate a combined annual turnover of £12 billion, one in 10 households in the city earns less than £16,518 in the same period.

Now, during the Coronavirus pandemic, there is a real risk that families and individuals already struggling to make ends meet will be hit hardest. The effect is already being felt on independent businesses in the city, where tourism brings in £750 million per year. With this income gone for an indefinite period of time, many of those employed by these businesses suddenly cannot afford the living costs of Cambridge, and risk sliding into poverty.

Cambridge City Foodbank provides emergency food parcels and support to those who need it most in and around the city. I have chosen them as their work is invaluable to hundreds who live in the area, and will be even more vital in the months to come. Over 14 million people live beneath the poverty line in the UK and, with the economic effects of Coronavirus set to linger long after the virus itself subsides, that number could well go up dramatically.

Please donate whatever you can, so that when you're laughing at me for voluntarily ruining my thigh muscles, you get the bonus of helping someone in my local community.

Source: 

https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/blog/tackling-poverty-cambridge-most-unequal-city-uk