After a few weeks of procrastinating and slightly willing my
range of standard middle-aged injuries to be bad enough to have to pull out, I
have to now admit that the challenge I signed up for back in August is just
over 4 weeks away – and I am doing it, armed with ibuprofen gel, poles and knee
supports…..

Many of you will have heard of the Everest in the Alps
challenge, started by my great old mates Rob and Tans Ritchie, turning the
awful trauma of Toby’s brain tumour diagnosis when he was 5 into something so
positive - both from a fundraising perspective, but also from a true endurance
challenge perspective. From that, Everest in the Lakes has been spawned: https://www.everestinthealps.com/everest-in-the-lakes/

Hiking, not ski-touring; in the Lakes, not the Alps; in the autumn, not the spring – and, I think (and sincerely hope!), not quite as hard...! That said, ascending 4500m (half the height of Everest – so as a pair, you ‘conquer’ it) over 2 days, does sound quite taxing for someone for whom the daily exercise routine is a 'pop ride' on the Peloton….

I signed up - prompted by Lizzie and Teresa, fuelled by wine - partly as a mid-life fitness vanity project and to support
the Ritchie’s amazing efforts over these years, but also as part of a promise:

I lost a very dear friend and colleague to a brain tumour
this past March. Vantil and I had worked together for over 18 years. We sat
next to each other for all 18 of them. We chatted daily - he talked work,
families, politics, life. He told me his terrible jokes, made me chat on days
when I didn’t feel like it, shared his genuine wisdom and never forgot my
birthday (often in a BA lounge somewhere in the world). He was diagnosed with a
brain tumour in the summer of 2019, his last day in the office ended up being
shortly before his 60^th birthday in November 2019 and then he died
in March this year. He was one of the most sociable, colourful, popular people
in our office (testimony to that is in the gallery of pictures), so to have gone through his illness during the pandemic was
particularly hard. We kept chatting, albeit over Facetime, right up to the end.
In what ended up being one of our last conversations in the office back in 2019,
not knowing - or not accepting - the reality of what was coming, we talked about
this challenge and I promised him that if the worst happened, I would do it. So,
here I am….

Brain tumours are a devastating and grossly underfunded
cancer. All the money raised from EIA/EIL goes to research, which is so key to
better treatments and outcomes. The Ritchies and Vantil’s family, his wife
Lilian and sons Cameron and Oliver, have been inspirational to me in the face
of adversity. I am lucky to have had very little to contend with that is
anything like this, so when I am moaning on a windswept hill, knackered and
freezing, wondering why I did it, I will think of them all.

I am funding this myself and will be donating to the charity
to do this – I am writing this as much to raise awareness as anything else (and
to know I can’t pull out!) but if you felt you wanted to give, every penny
helps. Thank you.