A Shelterbox is a tough, big green box containing a 10-person tent and ancillary equipment designed to enable a family to survive for at least six months. The tents are suitable for a wide range of conditions. Other items may include insulated groundsheets, thermal blankets, a multi-fuel stove, cooking equipment, tools, mosquito nets, water containers etc. Shelterbox sends these boxes around the world to disaster areas such as the recent fires in Australia, floods in Columbia and many other places.
Roger decided to raise money for Shelterbox following the massive earthquake in China last year and seeing how quickly Shelterbox reacted with such a common sense idea of sending real aid that can be used instantly by the people who need it and bypassing all the government red tape.
So far Shelterbox’s paid for by Roger’s fundraising efforts have been sent to victims in Sudan, Gaza, Congo, Nepal and Haiti. Throughout the last year he has been raising money by jumping out of an airplane at 15,000 feet, having sponges thrown at him while in a pair of stocks, having coffee mornings at his families East Cliff Café, and through sponsorship. “I think the scary thing about doing the Inca Trail is that it is nearly the same height as my skydive, where it was freezing and hard to breath.”
Roger came about the idea of doing the Inca Trail in the same week as the Earthquake by coming across an advert for a Charity Challenge, “I knew a few friends who did it and said it was tough, but I had always thought I couldn’t do it because I was too big as I was nearly 25 Stone, but that night I thought about it loads and thought that there was no reason not to do it anymore as I had lost nearly 10 stone in the last year as I had a spent 3 weeks in hospital with pancreatitis.”
He signed up for the Inca Trail Challenge and has spent the last 11 months training for it, “I thought if I can give myself a year to get ready for it, I could do something I’ve always wanted to do and it would give me one big push to lose that last bit of weight, get as fit as possible and to raise money for Shelterbox at the same time would be fantastic.”
Since then Roger has been training up to 6 times a week, “I’ve never been so fit in my life, I weigh less now then when I was in High School, the trouble is I can get bored when exercising so have mixed my training up with loads of walks, going to the gym, swimming and doing training with the Teignmouth Beach Surf Life Saving Club.”
The Inca Trail is 45km long and crosses rugged mountains at over 14,000 ft high, which can be dangerous due to Altitude Sickness. Which will see Roger hiking 4 long days to the final destination, Machu Picchu.
For more information on Roger’s Challenge, Shelterbox and to donate, please visit http://www.rogerschallenge.co.uk/
