So, last year I attemped to climb Gran Paradiso, Italys tallest peak as part of a small team with Ed Jackson, who is aiming to raise £250,000 to build a specialist spinal unit in Chitwan, Nepal.

The acclimatision hike was brutal. Insane gradients, that left me feeling pretty destroyed. The day after we climbed up to 3200m to the refuge where we had about 4 hours sleep before a 3am start to start our summit attempt of Paradiso.

The weather gods had not been kind. An unusually warm couple of nights meant the snow pack hadn't frozen. For every 10 steps we took, we sank to our waist. It was carnage. At any one point at least 25% of the team were stuck, having to be dug out by other team members. About 3 hours later, we'd only climbed a couple of hundred meters, and the guides had to pull the plug. It just wasn't safe to carry on.

Lot's of tears were shed. This was the culmination of months of training, and 3 exceptionally hard days getting to this point. Everyone was completely gutted, and after a 7 hour descent we all felt pretty fed up.

So... we are going again. This time we'll be heading straight to the Paradiso national park, straight up to a refuge, and summiting a neighbouring peak at 3800m, before going back down to a different refuge and summiting Gran Paradiso at 4067m the next day.

Ed's story is the epitome of inspiration, most of you know it, but for those that don't - Google it. I wont be able to do it justice. It's incredible to take on this adventure with Ed, but it makes it impossible to moan about my own aches and pains when Ed just ploughs on, like a machine, despite the disabilities he's left with after his freak accident.

Many of you sponsored me before, but if you can spare some pennies again it would be much appreciated.

I've HUGELY stepped up my training programme this time around, so this is going to be a 5 month long slog of weight training, hundreds of hours of cardio, and hopefully a number of peaks in the UK to get my legs ready.

So please give generously you beautiful people. There could not be a more worthy cause, and this time around I know just how much of a challenge this bitch of a mountain is.