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On April 25 2015 I was in Nepal when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the country to its core. The impact of the devastation on this amazing country and it's people is beyond words. 

Nepal is a country which is one of the poorest in the world (25% of the population live on less than $0.50 per day) but where every person will smile and greet you Namaste. The people are generous despite having very little, and unbelievably resilient despite their losses. Following the earthquake the loss for Nepal's people was immense;

• 8 900 lives lost
• 22 000 people injured
• 2.8 million people needed humanitarian assistance
• More than 800 000 homes destroyed
• Historic temples and monuments destroyed or damaged
• Roads and communications damaged
• Terraced farms and livestock wiped out by mudslides destroying entire livelihoods
• Around half of the country's schools damaged

In the aftermath of the earthquake I asked our Nepalese guides what I could do to help. They said to raise awareness and funds to help rebuild the country and to support education for Nepal's children.

The charity I'm fundraising for is called Classrooms in the Clouds. They work to build schools and sponsor teachers in the remote regions of Nepal and have several schools that they have helped rebuild since the earthquake. I met Dawa (their founder) in Nepal and he is an inspiration. Having himself had to leave school at a young age to look after his family he later trained as a mountain guide and saw through his work how education could open the world for Nepalese children. Many schools are several hours walk from remote villages meaning access to education is seriously limited. Through building schools in remote communities and repairing those damaged by the earthquake they can help Nepal to rebuild both now and in the future. They are a small charity with incredibly low admin overheads so the best bit is nearly all of the money raised goes directly into rebuilding and not lining the pockets of bureaucrats!  Check out their website for more info - https://www.classroomsintheclouds.org/index.php

It will take years to rebuild Nepal and every month of every year will be challenging and difficult for it's people so my original plan was to raise money for them by taking on a sporting challenge each month over a period of a year. Unfortunately after challenge 9 was completed I managed to get myself a compound ankle fracture requiring surgery and considerable rehabilitation so was unable to complete challenges 10-12  

The 9 challenges were;

July 2015 - Le Tour De Staveley - a 48.5 mile road cycling race with over 4000ft ascent.  COMPLETED!!!

August 2015 - Coniston Old Man fell race - 11km and 2350ft ascent.  COMPLETED!!!

September 2015 - Lakeland Trails Keswick 15km trail race. COMPLETED!!!

October 2015 - Mary Townley Loop - a 49.5 mile off road mountain bike ride with over 6500ft of climbing.  COMPLETED!!!

November 2015 - Lancaster Half Marathon road race. COMPLETED!!!

December 2015 - Langdales road 10k.  COMPLETED!!!

January 2016 - Staveley fell 10k.  COMPLETED!!!

February 2016 - Rydal trail 10k. COMPLETED!!!

March 2016 - Cartmel trail 18k COMPLETED!!! 

I'll post pictures of each event so you can see the pain, sweat, and probably tears in completing them :-)

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