Hello everyone and thank you so much for visiting my JustGiving page!

You should probably get comfortable because this could be a long one...

From April 2019 I will begin hiking the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), from Mexico to Canada, in support of international development charity WaterAid.

What is the PCT? 

The PCT runs along the west coast of the USA, starting at the Mexican border in California, before crossing the deserts of southern California, climbing the famed Sierra Nevada mountains, on across Northern California, Oregon, through the rugged North Cascades and ending at the Canadian border in northern Washington. Generally it takes people 5-6 months to complete, with a daily hiking average of about 20 miles. It is the second longest hike in North America, and it certainly is no walk in the park.

The real challenge!

I will be carrying all of my meagre possessions, my tent, food and water in a 48L Osprey backpack, and only stopping to resupply/rest every 5-7 days in small towns along the route. Horrifyingly, for a lot of people, I will have just one set of clothes for the entire hike, along with some thermal layers for the cold. Seriously, a 40g inflatable pillow is going to be the height of my luxuries :) 

Southern California sees a substantial amount of forest fires and regularly suffers from severe drought. For long stretches of the trail, occasionally lasting up to 40 miles, there will be no water available and so I must keep my pack weight as low as possible to allow for carrying huge amounts of water. Filtering water will be a necessary evil as I'll have no option but to collect water from any source I can.

And it was this lack of water, the awareness of my consumption, and the good fortune of being able to filter my water, that made WaterAid the natural charity choice for me.

Why am I doing it for charity?

Around the world 1 in 9 people don't have clean water close to home, and 1 in 3 don't have a decent toilet. This hike will be the first time I might actually understand just a tiny bit of their every day reality.

Every single minute a newborn baby dies from infection caused by lack of safe drinking water and an unclean environment. 

And every 2 minutes a child under 5 is killed by diarrhoea caused by dirty water and poor toilets.

These statistics are stark, and they are heartbreaking. 

And so I have set myself the ambitious target of trying to raise £2,650; £1 per mile of the Pacific Crest Trail hiked. For every £1 raised I will allocate a mile of my PCT hike to that amazing supporter, and I will update (as much as is humanly possible in the wild) my PCT fundraising map and supporter list here, where you can find the section of the trail that you have sponsored!

I'll post Instagram stories @the_wandering_pixelalong the way so do share your handle with me if you fancy a sneak peek of your section!

If my target is reached, the £2,650 could help to make an enormous difference for hospitals, schools and entire communities in Uganda, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Tanzania and so many more countries.

Extreme poverty will not end until everyone, everywhere has the basic human right of access to clean water, decent toilets and good sanitation. Please help me make a small difference by donating today! Any money, no matter how small, will help transform the lives of some of the poorest and most vulnerable people around the world, and will also give me the extra motivations to complete this challenge!

Thank you, thank you for all of your support :)