Hello everyone, my name is Neil and I live in Halford Warwickshire, I’m married to Katy and have two children, Freya and Connie.

This is a new exciting challenge for me; I’m a 50 year old dad who has never climbed a glazier mountain before. I have, however, swum 100 meters and entered the Comic Relief 1 mile fun run. So I guess I’m good to go! (By the way I would like to remove any notion that this is a midlife crisis, it most definitely is not. My midlife is years away yet!)

Edwards Trust means a lot to me, a dear friend of mine died 18 months ago aged 43, his death was totally unexpected and a great shock to me. His creative ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this planet to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his wife and three young children, his wider family, friends. Boy did he make the world laugh, he was one of the funniest people I’ve been blessed to meet.

Sadly after his death, there was no specific professional counselling available for his three children; Edwards Trust isn’t yet able to stretch to the region where he lived. I understand the importance of how both children and adults need effective counselling at these times. Without it the healing may never happen, their anger hurt, pain and silent suffering possibly staying with them for the rest of their lives.

It is my aim to help Edwards Trust to grow and develop into other regions, my business ‘Sandler Training’ is one of the Edward Trust’s ‘Honourable Hundred’ and I am raising funds via this Mont Blanc challenge to help make that happen.

N.B. All costs associated with this challenge are at my own expense. No monies raised will go; in anyway, to funding my trip or the equipment I purchase to undertake the climb.

My Training

General Training

From a 'Below average - Average' level of fitness I now need to be very fit. Armed with a purpose I am now undertaking exercise 5 days per week which will need upping to 6 soon. Training typically consists of

· Walking and jogging up illmington Hill. I typical carry a 8kg weighted ruck sack and walk for 2 hours midweek building that up to 2 – 4 hours per week

· Cross trainer in the gym, resistance 14 for 50 mins

Interval training

· Walking 5 miles but running whenever my heart rate monitor shows a dip in my heart rate. My aim is to have my heart rate in the ‘Highly Improving’ region which my clever heart rate monitor monitors and keeps me in check. I aim to develop quicker breath recover rates through this process.

· Alternative on the tread mill in the gym for 50mins, running jogging on varying inclines

Ashtanga Yoga

· This exercise plays no games. It has a brutal schedule, I mean it. I practice it twice a week for 1.5 hours/session. Ashtanga yoga is often called “athlete's yoga” because it has become popular as a cross-training technique for athletes who are competitively training. Good for the core, mind and breath control.

Snowden weekend

· In May I will be walking Snowden on the Saturday and another tough welsh mountain route on the Sunday

Mont Blanc Climb – June 15th

I’m taking the route from Les Chamonix refuge which is a more demanding route than the popular Gouter route, both technically and physically. I wanted to tackle steeper ground and some difficult icy traverses, as if! We didn’t realise it was the hard route when booking! Before the ascent my guide will teach me crampon and ice axe technique skills which, I’m told will be essential. It is, I am told, a more interesting route with beautiful scenery, making the harder work worthwhile, so they tell meJ