Many of you will know that I attempted to climb Everest in the Spring of 2014, but due to a fatal avalanche the mountain was closed to all climbers from the South side in 2014.  So after months of training, ignoring all my friends, saving my pennies, quitting my job and a month in Nepal my attempt was aborted.  The highest my team and I reached was approx. 5,800m (completing acclimatisation hikes above base camp whilst waiting to find out if it would still be possible to climb in 2014).  Given my complete lack of opportunity to get on to Mount Everest in 2014, I have now spent a further 6 months training, done lots more saving, given up my social life and am due to fly to Nepal on 28th March for Everest Take Two.  I am continuing to raise money this year for the charity Operation Smile, who were exceptionally grateful for the £15,000 we raised last year which enabled them to operate on many children unlucky enough to be born with clefts in Ectapec in Mexico.

Why Operation Smile?

Both my brother and I were both born with clefts.

Facts about clefts:

1. Clefts are the third most common birth defect

2. Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft

3. One in ten of those children die before their first birthday

4. Those who survive often suffer malnutrition, isolation and difficulties speaking

Even when we were small cleft surgery in the UK was relatively specialist and we spent our childhoods travelling to Great Ormond Street Hospital for operations and checkups each six months.  Whilst cleft surgery is now widely available in the UK this is not the case around the world where many are either not aware it is available or not able to afford the surgery.

Why climb Everest?!!!

Whilst I grew up in the flatest part of the UK, in 2005 I went on a Raleigh International expedition to work as a Project Manager in Costa Rica.  When I arrived we found they were short of trek guides and asked me if I would switch roles.  Given my love of the outdoors, I relished the challenge and became to love expedition life.  After I finished this expedition I spent a month travelling in South America, I then needed another challenge, sightseeing was not enough!  The biggest challenge, quite literally, that I could find was a mountain called Aconcagua.  I wanted to climb Aconcagua but I didn't have the time as I had to return to my banking job in London.  However I had unfinished business and I knew I would be back.

During the financial crisis I took a year out to study for an MBA at Copenhagen Business School, when I finished job hunting was challenging, so I decided that to keep myself motivated I would go back to Argentina and climb this mountain Aconcagua.  For those that don't know the summit of Aconcagua is just under 7,000m above sea level and is the highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas.  Being from Norfolk I knew nothing about altitude!  I told my family I was off "trekking" in Argentina for three weeks and boarded a plane to Buenos Aires.  On arrival in BA I had a call from home.  Apparently the Top Gear team had just attempted to drive accross the Andes, not far north of where I was going trekking.  Apparently their cars broke down at 5,000m because there wasn't enough oxygen for their engines to keep running.  Therefore my parents reasoned that maybe what I was up to was rather more challenging/dangerous than they realised when they packed me off "trekking"!  

On arrival at the first camp on the mountain (3,400m) I checked in with the National Park doctor.  I had to own up to the fact that I have epilepsy, which caused rather alot of alarm, according to the doctor Veronica, no one with Epilepsy had ever been to base camp before, let alone the top.  Having just flown half way round the world, I was certainly not giving up this early.  I had an amazing expedition on which pretty much everything went wrong, but I was biten by the bug and realised that I had unfinished business now and would have to go back.  From then on, as soon as I got down each mountain I climbed, had about a week of no exercise, eating rubbish, drinking lots of beer and then I needed a new project, so the next mountaineering project would start.

My climbing has involved summiting peaks in Argentina, Russia, Tanzania, France, Italy and an amazing attempt on Denali in Alaska.  The Seven Summits are the highest peak on each continent, I have now attempted to climb four and summited three of them.  Everest seemed a natural progression from the climbs that I have previously undertaken and after very little encouragement it seemed like a great idea to quit my well paid job in finance an go climbing!  

I would never dare ask anyone to sponsor me to do a 10km race, I do that in my lunch break; or a marathon, everyone does that.  But Everest on the other hand was the biggest challenge I could think of and therefore could justify asking my friends and family to sponsor me to help me give something back to those less fortunate than myself.  Many charities are very popular and well funded, but when I discovered the work of Operation Smile I felt a desire to help, unlike Great Ormond Street Hospital and Help the Heroes they do not have massive income streams and therefore I knew that by working with Operation Smile I could really make a difference.

Its very simple, remember the first time you saw your child smile, imagine you missed out on that moment.  

It costs only £150 to provide a free corrective operation for a child, which will change their life forever.  

Knowing that by summiting Everest I will be able to help give some children a smile, will keep me going during the tough times when I just want to get down the mountain and breath rich oxygen or curl up and stay in my sleeping bag to avoid the cold.

Every £1 will help, so please help me to give some smiles to the children who weren't lucky enough to be born automatically with this gift.