Having been introduced three years ago to the Gurkha military community serving here in various areas of the UK, I was then fortunate enough to visit Nepal in November 2017 to see where these brave and fiercely proud soldiers start their journey in order to serve for our country, and where a considerable number of them return to once their service is done and they have retired. We visited communities, schools and welfare centres which ex-serving pensioners will walk for several days to visit for essential medical treatments and health care.

I fell in love with the people and the country but was saddened to see how hard life is for this amazingly resilient and generous nation, and I was even more dismayed to see that the effects of the 2015 earthquake were still very much in evidence, with communities still shattered, buildings still in ruins and families still living in makeshift huts and shelters.

Particularly hard was seeing how this was still affecting young children every day, preventing them going to school, or risking going into school buildings which are damaged and in need of repair, some in need still of connection to mains supplies like water, and where simple stationery supplies are valued like gold dust and everyday technology that we take completely for granted, which had been lost in the earthquake, is too expensive for the communities to replace.

My aim is to initially raise funds to provide Shree Sherada Secondary School in Ghachock with much needed stationery supplies and a new set of laptops to enable the children to get better access to further educational materials. If I manage to achieve that then I will look to fund further social welfare, community, health and education projects in this most deserving of countries.

They have given so much to us, I would love to be able to give something worthwhile back.