Dear Friends and Well-Wishers,

With the grace of the All-Mighty, and your prayers and best wishes, I made it to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro last week. The entire experience, including the four months of preparation and planning, was absolutely fantastic and to a certain extent I'm a little sad that it's now over.

The summit night is one that will remain in memory for a very long time to come. It was by far the most challenging period of the climb. We reached Kibo camp in the evening after an 8 hour hike from Horombo and had to be ready for our summit attempt by 11PM that same night.  We eventually reached Gilman's point at sunrise and from there it was another 2 hour hike to Uhuru peak at 19,340 ft. We traced our steps back to Kibo camp for a short rest of an hour before we had to be back on our feet for Horombo.

For the entire week of the climb, we were completely cut off from the news of the world and I missed the announcement from the United Nations where they'd upgraded the humanitarian situation in the horn of Africa to a status of 'Famine'. With your help we've raised this much, but we can still do more.  Please start your own fund raising initiative to channel the much needed aid to this part of the world.

I am thankful for the opportunity to have been able to do this. I realise that there so many out there that are far less fortunate.  I'm teaming up with Muslim Aid, a charity that works in over 70 of the world's poorest nations, to raise awareness, support and funds for them. I appeal to you to join me in supporting this noble cause and contributing to making a real difference in people's lives.

Your donations are being used to provide humanitarian relief to the over 10 million people in North East Africa that are risking starvation today. The drought conditions in the region are the worst in 60 years and food and water reserves have been depleted. Urgent assistance is needed. 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.