Her name is Thufa, my cousin's daughter of 7 years. She lives with her family in a town called Akurana on the island of Sri-Lanka.

She's also running out of time...

Thufa has suffered her whole life from a hereditary blood disorder known as Thalassemia major. It's passed on through mutated genes from both parents, who are carriers but not sufferers, and stops her body from producing enough haemoglobin; the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood. This causes a series of crippling symptoms, mere months after birth: anaemia, fragile and deformed bones, heart palpatations, shortness of breath, delayed growth, amongst others. Her family and doctors have managed to keep her stable up until now with regular blood transfusions, but the effects of Thalassemia major can be so severe to be fatal within the first 10 years of a child's life. Thufa's at an age now where this potential outcome is looking more and more like a reality.

Below is a copy of Thufa's medical report:

But there is one way that she may be saved from this premature fait. A bone marrow transplant will allow her to manufacture healthy blood cells on her own; no more transfusions, no more anaemia, she'll have her life back, and her family will have theirs.

This procedure however comes at great cost. Not available in Sri-Lanka, she must be taken to a specialist in Bangalore, India. The cost of the overall procedure will come to US$80,000, or approximately £60,500. This is too much for any family to bare, but without it, their daughter may not survive for much longer. So it was that her father sent out a letter of appeal for any financial help to save his daughter's life.

The following are a letter from the Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre regarding the treatment fees, along with the subsequent letter of appeal from Mohammad Moosa Fawmy, Thufa's father:

This is where we come in. This page has a goal of £10000, which I'm hoping will be a starting point that can be reached and taken further if there's enough support. The ultimate goal is to raise all the money, which I can't do on my own and I know others are busy doing their part. But even just this amount will still bring Thufa that much closer to a much happier life and help ease off the weight upon her family's shoulders.

When I created this page I made a pledge to hike up the highest peaks in the five nations within the UK and Ireland to help raise awareness for Thufa. We spent the months leading up to the challenge training and fundraising; see a short sample of our experience in my video below:

7 months of training and planning later, myself and five dear friends of mine managed to complete this challenge between the 3rd-8th May 2018; Alex Jakeman, Ian Wallsh, Joe Baker, Neil Smith and Pratik Rao, a massive thank you to you guys! Please check my Facebook profile for the full story; I recorded video and took photos of the entire challenge and shared it publicly as close to real time as I could. Thanks to this, we managed to reach friends and family all over the world, who were inspired and moved by our dedication to Thufa's cause, and have now started to take steps to contribute in their own way. We managed to raise well over £3000 over the course of the challenge, both through sharing this page and media through Facebook, but also through the many generous souls we met during our hikes; people whom we'd never met who were willing to take the time to talk to us, share the page and even donate! The level of compassion and generosity we've seen throughout this campaign has been overwhelming, and we hope it continues. Thank you so much to everyone who's supported us so far.

Here are some photos from our challenge:

Our posters for the challenge:

Hiking and summitting Snowdon in Wales, 4th May 2018:

Hiking and summitting Carrauntoohil in Ireland, 5th May 2018:

Hiking and summitting Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland, 6th May 2018:

Hiking and summitting Ben Nevis in Scotland, 7th May 2018:

Hiking and summitting Scafell Pike in England, 8th Ma 2018:

Posing at a service station on the M40 on the way back home with our completed posters, 8th May 2018; thank you Neil Smith for taking this photo, and also being are faithful driver throughout the challenge!

If you've come to the end of my story here, my sincerest thanks, your patience and consideration is very much appreciated. Please contribute whatever you can and stay tuned to this page and my Facebook profile for updates on further fundraising schemes. This page will stay live till we reach our ultimate goal to raise the full amount for Thufa's procedure, even if it means having to go over our modest target here.

The last time I saw Thufa face to face was when she was only a year old. I hope to travel to Sri-Lanka soon to see her again and how much she's grown in these precious years. But the knowledge that even soon may be too late to see her again is a truth that I nor her family can bare. With your help, we can keep her smiling for many years to come.

Thank you so much for your time.