On 13 February 2015, seven-odd years ago, I was definitively diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma. A couple of months previously, at the very beginning of the journey through cancer treatment, I had to cancel my planned first experience of ski touring. It was something I had been hoping to do for many years.

Today, I’ve been discharged from consultant care and have already enjoyed three ski touring trips with the same guide, Ric Potter (that's him in the picture above). Late in 2019 Ric invited me to join him and some others on one of the “bucket list” journeys that many off-piste skiers aspire to: the six-day, 120km Haute Route across the high Alps from Chamonix to Zermatt. I didn’t ever think I’d be skilled or well enough to do it.

We planned to start on 16th March 2020, pretty much five years after I started chemotherapy. It seemed a fitting moment to recognise the professionals and organisations that helped me and continue to help many others as they face life-threatening illnesses.

On 14th March 2020 every ski resort and hut in the Alps got shut due to Covid-19. I had already raised £3,369.75 for a group of charities from a kind and generous group of friends and family. I unpacked my bags and we entered lockdown.

In 2021, the pandemic still stopped us going.

But hopefully in 2022 we can do it. We aim to set off on 15th March for six days and make it to Zermatt on 21st. This happens to be my 50th year, which is hopefully auspicious.

So, I’ve once more put up a page where people can donate to one or more of four charities, linked below, and in this order below:

1. Maggie’s, the charity which offers psychological support to anyone affected by cancer in dedicated centres next to hospitals;

2. the Churchill Hospital Oxford, where I was treated;

3. Lymphoma Action, whose name is self-explanatory;

4. Stupid Cancer, a USA charity helping kids with cancer. I do a lot of work in the USA with American colleagues, clients and friends, and wanted to acknowledge both this and the support of my great friend and colleague Ken Eng during my illness, who sent me a bunch of Stupid Cancer stuff which said "Stupid Cancer - get busy living" and even travelled over to the UK from New York to visit me, courtesy of my very supportive employer at the time.

Apologies for the wierd way in which JustGiving doesn't make the donation recipients in the list below any clearer.

I’d be very grateful if you feel that you could join me in celebrating what is, for me, an extraordinary and rather emotional moment. To be clear, I am covering every cost of the trip, and all money you give will go straight to the charities. The trip may be cancelled for any number of reasons, or we may have to abandon it half-way through due to the weather, Covid, or who knows what. But I hope that you will feel that, whatever happens, these are causes worth supporting.