Hello, my name is Wayne Hitchings. I’m 33 years old and I grew up in St. Mawes. I am a volunteer with All Hands Volunteers who are a disaster response charity.

At the end of May 2016 I will be part of a 20 person team made up of volunteers from across the world, attempting to hike to Everest Base Camp in order to raise money for the people most affected by the Nepal earthquake. The challenge will take around 12 days to complete with 5-9 hours of hiking each day and a couple of rest days along the way. With an altitude of 5,364m and just 50{c8c3b3d140ed11cb7662417ff7b2dc686ffa9c2daf0848ac14f76e68f36d0c20} of the oxygen in the air compared to sea level, it promises to be tough!

Why am I doing it?

The 25th April 2016 marked the one year anniversary of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which killed more than 8000 people and destroyed half a million homes in one of the world’s poorest countries. One year on many of the worst affected areas in the difficult to reach regions remain in desperate need of help.

All Hands Volunteers are there right now, building earthquake-resilient schools to replace those that collapsed in the Nuwakot region of the country. Having spent 3 weeks on the project last year, shortly after the earthquake struck, I can testify to the incredible work that this charity is doing. After the challenge is completed (successfully I hope!) I will re-join the project for a further week.

I would be extremely grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to look at my fundraising page and consider making a donation to help me reach my £2,500 target. The more money that is raised the more schools get built and the longer the charity can remain in Nepal. Any donations made before May 12 will be 100{c8c3b3d140ed11cb7662417ff7b2dc686ffa9c2daf0848ac14f76e68f36d0c20} matched by the charity’s founder! You’ll find my fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/Wayne-Hitchings

I will be writing a blog throughout the expedition exclusively for Roseland Online so that you can keep up to date with our progress and ask any questions that you may have. The updates will feature on this page. Please feel free to drop in any time and follow my progress.

In the mean time you’ll find more information on my fundraising page at the link above and you can see the work we’ve done over the past year in Nepal by watching this 2.5min video  http://hands.org/nepal-earthquake-one-year-anniversary/

Thank you for now,

Wayne