This will be my biggest charity challenge to date, but is still incomparable to that of someone who's just been told they have leukaemia - cancer of the blood or bone marrow, and the most common form of childhood cancer. 

There's currently no known cure for blood cancers and many other blood disorders, but the reality is that our knowledge, understanding, and ability to generate effective treatments for them far outstrips doctors' abilities to trial those options, and to save the lives of patients. 

I'll be trekking for five days through the Borneo jungle, along the Sandakan-Ranau trail that many an Australian or British PoW would have trodden before me, and the big one: tackling altitude and climbing the 4000m granite peak of Mount Kinabalu. 

This is all to raise money and awareness for Cure Leukaemia: a superb clinician-run charity that works with doctors, nurses and patients in the internationally recognised Centre for Clinical Haematology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They make it their mission to close the above treatment gap, funding much-needed and pioneering clinical trials, and bringing lifesaving treatments within the reach of people who’ve received diagnosis.

LATE ADDENDUM AS AT MAY 2018

Okay, boys and girls, I’m now seriously upping the stakes on this. This is no longer just about supporting solely Cure Leukaemia.

Having been researching my destination, I’m now deciding to make this additionally about helping to preserve Borneo itself: our planet’s oldest rainforest habitat, and the future of our closest species, the critically endangered Bornean Orangutan.

I am going to PERSONALLY MATCH (yes, you read that right) every pound you directly donate via this page with equally amounting donations to SOS Borneo’s Rainforest Rehabilitation programme and International Animal Rescue’s Orangutan Rescue project combined:
http://savetheorangutan.org/our-work/rainforest-conservation
https://www.internationalanimalrescue.org/orangutan-sanctuary/our-work

I’ve been learning a lot about all of this recently, and have been moved deeply by seeing the impact of some of our fellow man’s selfish destruction, the choices we all have to make a difference, and the responsibility we have to protect the beauty that surrounds us. We are here for but a short time on this incredible planet, and we live amongst the most majestic and awe inspiring beauty and life forms. It’s our duty to fight for this, and to value all other life that surrounds us with the precious reverence we do our own.

Please help me do that right now in the most immediate way I know how, and know I offer my tremendous gratitude to anyone who feels able to do so.