Congratulations to Staffordshire UCCC General Manager Paul Barrow who completed a six-day trek across the Himalayan Mountains as part of Trek India 2001 last month - and personally raised over £2,000 for the international disability charity, Sense International, out of a total of £100,000.

Paul, of Quarry Service Station, Audley, Stoke-on-Trent, travelled to the Himalayas to round off a summer of fund raising in his area which included contributions from customers, a go-kart race night between local motor traders, a barbeque and a parachute jump.

Trek India was the first of its kind and Paul underwent a 10 week fitness programme as part of his preparation. He said: "I'd done nothing like this before, so I went for a walk in Snowdonia and discovered how difficult that was. After that I joined a local gym and lost a stone in weight through training."

At one time it looked as though Paul's trek in the Himalayas might be curtailed by the worsening Afghanistan situation. "With everything that had been going on you were never sure if it might be called off so I'd been trying not to think about it until the event was actually upon us. It wasn't until the last week that I realised it would actually be happening and could start to focus on it."

With 20 other trekkers, he headed out from north India to the lush hillsides and pine forested mountains where ancient villages are scattered across the highest mountain range in the world - a mixture of some of the most beautiful and treacherous landscape on the planet. "It was brilliant, the sights were fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would certainly do it again."

The trek was not all plain sailing and Paul and his fellow trekkers had to endure some uncomfortable moments, but there were some hot springs and cool mountain streams along the way where they could get an occasional wash.

Sense supports the development of services for those who are both deaf and blind. The money raised from Trek India 2001 will go towards developing much-needed education and rehabilitation programmes for deaf-blind children in India.

reproduced by kind permission of © Unipart Independent Motor Trader Magazine Dec 2001