Thank you to all for your kindness and to those who continue to donate! We are so touched and amazed by your generosity which will help us change so many lives. For those who would like to continue to follow our story, please join our mailing list at www.lotusflowertrust.org/contact and follow our social media channels, links for which can be found at the footer of our website: www.lotusflowertrust.org,

John's epic 30,000 ft virtual climb to Everest is now complete! No mean feat when you are more than 80! Congratulations John. Today, 24th September, is also 100 years on from Mallory's journey to the North Col and to mark this, more than 500 boys from Winchester College ran a collective total of 4,400 km in and around the school grounds - an amazing acheivement in support of Lotus Flower Trust. We couldn't be more grateful for all your support. Thank you SO much Winchester College! Please do keep supporting us and donate if you can. We'd love to get a little closer to our target to help all those who need our help in India. Thank you.

See John live on Facebook at WInchester College to find out how all the staff and students are doing on their North Col Challenge!

27,000 ft and nearly there now! Join John on his final climb to the summit and see how he's getting on... 3,000 ft to go!

21,000 ft and counting! Please support John through his final and most gruelling week of climbing on his epic Virtual Everest Challenge... 21,000 ft Update!

John is now half way through his Virtual Everest Challenge! Click on this video link to find out how he's doing... John's Half Way to Everest Update!

Please share with all your friends. Thank you for all your support!

"Just because there is no destination in sight doesn't mean the road is not worth travelling." (Chinese Proverb)

80-year-old CEO and Founder of Lotus Flower Trust, John Hunt, in partnership with 400 boys and staff from Winchester College, plans to (virtually) climb Everest, the highest mountain in the world at 29,028 ft/8,848 m to help raise funds for the work of Lotus Flower Trust.

Background

On 24th September 1921 climbers from the very first British expedition to Everest reached 23,000 ft, the North Col on the mountain. Among them were George Mallory and three others, all former pupils of Winchester College. By coincidence, another member of the team was botanist Dr Sandy Wollaston, a direct relative of one of the Trustees of the Lotus Flower Trust, Richard Wollaston. But the North Col was as high as they achieved; the explorers turned back due to poor weather, returning again in 1922 and then again in 1924. Sadly, in 1924 George Mallory and Sandy Irvine perished close to the summit and it is still a mystery as to whether they reached the top or not.

Mallory North Col Challenge

On the 24th September 2021 students and staff from Winchester College will replicate the approach journey made by those on the 1921 expedition from Mumbai on the Indian coast to Everest Base Camp, virtually traversing Darjeeling, crossing Sikkim and Tibet by collectively running some 2,500 km.

Lotus Flower Trust Everest Challenge

Using his gruelling climbing machine, John will climb the height of Everest 29,028 ft (he actually plans to achieve 30,000 ft for ease of maths). Starting his virtual journey on Monday 21st August, John plans to reach the summit on 24th September, exactly 100 years to the day since the 1921 team reached the North Col, the anniversary of what was then the highest anyone had ever climbed.

As India struggles with the second wave of the Covid-19 virus, fundraising for charity has become harder than ever. I am determined not to let anything come between us and helping the poor with whom we work and who are in desperate need of our support, John said.

At the young age of 80, having recovered from prostate cancer in 2019, and survived Covid-19 and a heart attack in 2020 (from which he has fully recovered), John is now fit enough to complete the challenge.

"I know its a cheat to climb Everest in any way but the proper way," he says, "but following the path set by Captain Tom who set for us all such a fine example, I feel the effort to be well worthwhile. We hope that through donations from crowdfunding and sponsorship, in partnership with Winchester College, we can raise our target of £100,000."

Winchester College and the Lotus Flower Trust

Winchester College has been supporting the Lotus Flower Trust for the past 11 years, with students raising more than £250,000 during this time, travelling with John to work on the projects themselves and changing the lives of so many in environmentally challenging areas of India. To date they have completed Tarsaal School, Basgo Nunnery, Himalayan International School, Shara Sharnos Kindergarten, accommodation at Khaltse School and a Hostel at the PAGIR Centre for Special Needs.

With a target of £100,000, money raised from this joint campaign will go towards funding three major projects to help ease poverty, climate change and support education in India, where the need is stonger than ever after the disastrous effects of the Covid pandemic:

1. Building a farm at Basgo Nunnery in Ladakh to help the nuns and destitute girls who reside here become self-sufficient. https://www.lotusflowertrust.org/basgo-nunnery

2. Creating artificial glaciers to restore water to four remote Himalayan villages. https://www.lotusflowertrust.org/artificial-glaciers

3. To fund the first phase of a new school for 1,000 poor children currently studying in unsafe conditions close to Moradabad. https://www.lotusflowertrust.org/chaudhary-kanya-higher-secondary-school

John set up the Lotus Flower Trust in 2008 to raise funds to build schools, homes and skills centres for children, women and people with special needs in remote and environmentally challenging areas of India. Since then the charity has raised more than £1,840,000 which has funded 72 projects. As with all charities, the effects of Covid-19 have hit hard. Raising money, particularly for small charities, has become desperately difficult, but John and the students of Winchester College are determined not to give up, to keep fighting for the many children and their families who need our help more than ever. Please support us if you can.

Huge thanks to the students and staff from Winchester College for their continued support and all their endeavours in this challenge.

I promise to keep you closely updated with my progress throughout this next important journey in my life.

John Hunt, CEO & Founder of Lotus Flower Trust

www.lotusflowertrust.org