In February 2018, along with a team of fifteen others, I’ll be attempting an extreme alpine challenge: Everest in the Alps, raising money for The Brain Tumour Charity. This will be the second 'Everest' ascent. The last one, in 2015, raised a whopping £3M for The Brain Tumour Charity and its Everest Research Centre.

We will be ascending 8,848 metres – the height of the world's largest mountain – on skis over a period of four days. That’s a total of 32 hours climbing (twenty different ascents), with only three hours of downhill skiing over the entire challenge. Each day we will burn over 10,000 calories, the equivalent to running three marathons back to back per day, for four days . . .

It sounds like madness, but we’ve got a great team committed to the challenge and I’m convinced we can do it. And it’s all in aid of a charity that is very close to my heart. My colleague’s nephew, Toby, was diagnosed with a low grade brain tumour at the age of five. Despite surgery and gruelling chemotherapy, the position of the tumour on Toby’s brain stem means that it cannot be fully removed. More recently, in May 2015, a great friend of mine, Rich, was diagnosed with a similar brain tumour after a fit whilst playing tennis. Over the last two and a half years he has undergone surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Rich’s bravery has astonished me.

Brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone at any age. What's more, they kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, yet just 2% of total cancer research funding goes to this area and little is known about causes, which means treatment remains inadequate. So come February, I’ll be taking part in The Everest in the Alps Challenge: The Second Ascent to raise funds for The Brain Tumour Charity. We want to raise money to fund vital research planned by the Everest Research Centre.

I hope you’ll want to sponsor me in the months and weeks leading up to the climb, and I promise to keep you all updated with photographs of me looking sweaty and red-faced! In a bid to get as fit as possible before February I have joined a gym for the first time in my life and am embracing everything it has to offer. So far I have been to a Warrior Class, which was intimidating, a Yoga Class (I am not bendy), floundered around in the pool and fired myself off an Ergo in front of the entire gym!

This challenge is self-funded, so please rest assured any money raised will go towards the research fund. You can see my team mates’ Just Giving pages at the 'Everest in The Alps Challenge: The Second Ascent' link at the top of the page. As a group, we’re aiming to raise £350,000.