The breakout of the war in Ukraine made me profoundly sad, and the ongoing stories of destruction, struggle and misery make me sadder still. To show my solidarity with the people of Ukraine I am raising money for a Ukrainian Charity who are providing on the ground support services to those in the Odessa region. To do so I have set myself the challenge of Everesting the Vertical Kilometer in Chamonix on the 11th of September.

 

If you haven't heard the term 'Everesting,' it means to go up something enough times that you accumulate the same amount of height gain as Everest itself; 8849m. In my case, I will run, walk and crawl up what is known as the Vertical K (a hiking / training path that follows one of Chamonix's cable cars) which from bottom to top is 895m. So I will do 9 full laps and 1 lap of 749 meters to give me a total of 8849 meters of ascent.

 

To my knees delight though I will be using the cable car to descend! ;)

 

So who is the Charity?

 

I will be collecting for the OMR Fund, a grass roots, registered Ukrainian Charity. They have been operating for 9 years, traditionally to support orphans, but they are now providing anything they can like; food, clothing and blankets, to the people in the war torn region of Odessa. The OMR Fund have a mere team of 4, non of whom are payed, so all the money goes directly where it's needed.

 

I spoke with a man called Dima who is working on the ground for OMR. We both nearly cried when the notion of our (European people's) solidarity with Ukraine came up. This project is as much about raising money, as it is about showing Ukraine that they do not stand alone. So please show your support however you can.