Along with 20+ work colleagues of various nationalities I am going to be trekking up and across the Transylvanian Alps in Romania to raise money for our UNICEF brighter futures campaign that I am very attached and committed to. 

The Brighter Futures Campaign raises money for some of the world's most vulnerable children, particularly those in Bangladesh, Malawi, Bolivia and Mauritania. 

This year, the trek sees a group of us contributing our own money, time and resource to complete a gruelling 4 days of trekking across the Translyvanian Alps, climbing to altitudes of over 2000m. This is the land of Dracula... and although we are due to walk around his castle (with some garlic in hand to keep him at bay...), we hope to avoid the vampires and anything else too nasty and vicious, including any confrontations with the wild animals (bears, lynxes and wolves) that do actually live in this range of mountains ...

Vampires and wild animals apart...the biggest challenge for me will be the stamina, especially across some of the steeper parts of the trek that will require the use of ropes to help us navigate the climbs and declines... Something my body is not used to as it gets older...

My training starts now to try and get my legs, lungs and the rest of my body in shape and so does my fundraising... which is why we are all doing it - to raise money for a good cause... 

Please donate as much as you can as the money all goes towards our target for the event and massively improves the lives and opportunities given to the young children around the world we are looking to support. 

Thanks for your consideration and your donations...It means a lot to me and I am sure even more to those young people living in conditions many of us can't even imagine.