Four weeks to go

Only four weeks to go. In 28 days' time, I should be camped at Confluencia (named for being at the junction of two of Aconcagua's rivers), getting some rest before trekking to view the vast South Face of the mountain as an acclimatisation exercise.

Training is going well. I can now complete most of the ride between my office and hotel in the highest gear I've got available (there is a higher one, but I can't select it until I've got time to get the bike serviced. Cable trouble). Two weeks ago, I couldn't manage to sustain that level of effort for that long. The only trouble is that Edinburgh's entered a period of alternating rain and cold, which makes some parts of my usual route treacherous. The long, narrow, cobbled, cambered footpath along the viaduct is particularly nerve-wracking, but even the ungritted turning onto the path is dicey. I came off this evening, and decided to ride back on the roads instead.

As it gets closer, I wanted to take a moment to remind you of my fundraising. The trip is a private one and I am paying for all the costs ourselves, but I wanted to use the opportunity to raise money for the National Deaf Children’s Society. My youngest daughter Cora is hearing impaired, but she’s one of the lucky ones: once she’s old enough for treatment on her glue ear, she should be able to live a normal life.

Deafness is not a learning disability and with proper support deaf children can do anything that other children can. There are 45,000 deaf children in the UK, and around 1,600 more born every year. Many of them are not as lucky as Cora. The statistics are truly shocking:

• 65% of deaf children fail to achieve 5 A*-C grades at GCSE
•  Deaf children are 60% more likely to suffer mental health problems
•  Deaf children are more than twice as likely to be abused as other children.

These outcomes are completely avoidable, and the fact that a supposedly civilised society cannot eliminate them is, to my mind, completely unacceptable. The NDCS aims to change that. It receives 95% of its funding from donations and fundraising, and to achieve its vision of “a world without barriers for every deaf child”, it needs to raise over £10m each year.

My target is £6,962 – the height of the mountain - and everything I raise will go to the NDCS. We are 35% of the way there. Please do give generously.

Thanks in advance, on behalf of Cora and other hearing-impaired children.

Jason