LOVE HOPE STRENGTH

We did it! Kilimanjaro.. harder than the Everest trek - much more of a physical test. There were a few of us who nearly didn't make it and probably a couple who might not have tried in other circumstances, but no, we all made it. Apparently a 100% success rate is unheard of for a group of 25. Even Roman Abramovich didn't make it the week before us with a team of 200 porters! The money raised so far (and counting) will be used to build a childrens cancer treatment centre in Arusha. This is the closest city to Kilimanjaro, where many of our porters hailed from. A place of startling poverty where the help offered by the foundation will be greatly appreciated and make a huge difference. If you want to go ahead and donate right away then use the logo on the left. If you want to learn how I got involved with the charity and why it is so important to me then please read on..

In early 2007 a mutual friend recommended Mike Peters to get in touch with me to talk about a foundation he had set up with US rock business dude James Chippendale to fight cancer. They have both fought off forms of leukaemia and wanted to take the fight to places that could use some extra help. Mike called me at home where my mother is buried. She had died of cancer some years before. Incredibly Mike called on her birthday. As he spoke of the goals of the foundation to bring up to date cancer care to people who didn't have it, I looked out over my mum's spot in the garden and I knew this was it..

I can hang a song around my old guitar, but, that's about it really. So in these days where everyone tries to do their bit to redistribute the wealth a little bit more fairly than politicians and business seem to want to do, I'd found a place where I could use what I do to help others. I knew that the diversion from my normally self-centred 'artistic' view would do me good too. And the trek that 38 of us westerners undertook to the summit of Kala Pattar in the high Himalaya did everything I'd hoped for and so much more.

It was as if everything you knew, but couldn't think to see was held up in front of you, magnified and held for you to contemplate for a moment.

We are tiny little creatures in this vast universe. We are the same and we need each other.

Anyway you knew that already..

Last year we went to the spiritual heart of the Incas to play a few songs at Macchu Pichu. It promised to be another incredible trek with amazing scenery and emotional and physical highs and lows. Sounds great doesn't it? A jolly for the rock stars? (and me). Well, Everest Rocks has raised an incredible amount of money for the Bakhtapur Cancer Centre in Nepal to make it the state-of-the- art cancer hospital in the region and help it be self-sufficient. Fund raising by Love Hope Strength will continue there and if you want to send some cash to Nepal via Everest Rocks, click on the 'donate' banner on the left.

Last year LHS raised a substantial amount for equipment and (just as important in Peru) education, that will save thousands of lives there. You can still trace the trek via the Peru Rocks site navigable by clicking on the Peru Rocks banner above left. If you want to go straight ahead and donate, click on the logo on the left.

Thanks for reading this it means a lot to me.

Nick x