I am combining two of my great passions this Feb/March 2025! Firstly my passion for hiking in the Himalayas and secondly, supporting India's biggest charity called Magic Bus, which works relentlessly to empower India’s most vulnerable children and young people.

Starting in Kathmandu / Lukla on 23rd Feb, I will be hiking for 14 days to Everest Base Camp (5,364 meters above sea level) and then to Kalapathar (5,550 meters) passing through picturesque villages like Namche Bazaar, Tengboche, Dingboche and Gorakhshep. This has been a childhood dream and I have been training for the last few months. I am hoping to complete the 122 kms / 76 mile hike despite the freezing temperatures (currently minus 17C in Gorakhshep but am hoping it will be a 'balmy' minus 10C when I get there in early March!).

I had joined Magic Bus UK as a Board member / Trustee in Sep-24. Magic Bus's mission is ‘To equip vulnerable young people with life skills that enable them to thrive in the transition to adulthood'. Using sport, play and mentoring as tools, Magic Bus is empowering India’s most vulnerable children and young people on the path from Childhood to Livelihood. They learn the life skills that will help them to succeed in school, become empowered to avoid child marriage and child labour, find a secure job, and leave poverty behind for good. Magic Bus has worked with over 3 million children and over 370,000 young people across India in the past 25 years. I strongly believe that, irrespective of family background and demography, all children have inherent strengths to succeed and that we must do our best to provide the right platform and opportunities to nurture this talent and bring about change. This aspiration is closely aligned with Magic Bus’s objective of helping children to break free of poverty and lead fulfilling and rewarding lives. My role as a Board member is to help guide the strategic direction of the charity and to use my personal and professional network to help with fundraising.

I am hoping that you will support me in raising funds for Magic Bus with my EBC hike. Once you donate, JustGiving will send 100% of your contributions directly to the charity (125% via Gift Aid, if you are a UK tax payer) as I am sponsoring my own expenses for the trip :-)

I will share photos of my trip in due course. Thanks once again for reading this and for your support.

5th March update: I reached EBC on Monday 3rd March at around 12noon local time. Although it was gruelling and unusually cold for end Feb/early March, it was an amazingly fulfilling and once-in-a-lifetime experience. I am posting some photos from the top! I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who contributed generously and for supporting underprivileged children in India via Magic Bus. It is highly appreciated and gratefully received on their behalf