During the first week of May 1999, 58 fund-raisers for the children's charity Whizz-Kidz, the Movement for Non-Mobile-Children, risked leech-infested jungle, leg-sapping ascents in searing temperatures, altitude sickness, and a diet of boiled eggs, to trek over 100 kms through the foothills of the Himalaya in Nepal, ultimately reaching a height of 12,000 ft.

Six months ago, I gazed at the photograph of immense snow-capped mountains on the brochure advertising the Whizz- Kidz Himalayan Challenge - today, after a lung-bursting ... (more)