When Stephen attended training for his beloved Pershore Cricket Club back in August, he got talking to his two other opening batsmen. They started discussing the idea they’d had about a crazy challenge they were considering undertaking in April 2023.

“I’ve always wanted to climb Mount Everest, but I’m not mad enough to ever think I’d go to the very top. When they told me they were thinking of doing it, there was no pause in my response; I’m in! The only detail that stood out to me was that the lads were thinking of taking it on in April.”

With just 8 months standing between then and the summit, some hard training had to commence.

“Thankfully we only had a couple more weeks of the cricket season left, and then we could get fully in the swing of training for Everest. I’d had a pretty good warm-up during the COVID Lockdown when I completed a self-guided Cotswold Way. 102 miles in total, of which we completed the last 60 miles in 3-4 days alone – never mind that we had to walk between starting points and hotels we’d organised ourselves.”

Since then, Stephen’s thrown himself into training over the last couple of months.

“I’ve ridden over 900km on my bike-trainer since October, I make sure to run somewhere between 5-10 miles each week, and on top of the cricket I play squash competitively twice a week.

I think my most intense training experience is that I recently went into a hyperbaric chamber. With Base Camp resting at 18,500 feet, the chamber is designed to give your body the best chance to acclimatise as the altitude rises the higher we get – it felt like 2 tonnes of concrete sat on my chest!”

Stephen’s motivation for this phenomenal feat is twofold. An outdoors man, he’s always had Everest on his bucket list. When Baxter Healthcare announced Penny Brohn UK as their new 2-year charity partner, he knew it would be the perfect opportunity to tick it off the list, while making a difference.

“A close friend of mine passed away from cancer nearly 20 years now, at just 36. I always thought that if I was crazy enough to take on Everest, then I would do it in his memory and try to raise some vital awareness and funds for cancer support.

Penny Brohn UK do really good work to support families and individuals with cancer, and if somebody can gain some awareness, and get some help from me doing this – then it’s a no-brainer.”

With just 2 weeks to go until they jet off to Kathmandu, Steve is ready and raring to face the challenge ahead.

“I’m quite looking forward to 15 days without ‘nonsense’ to be honest – no phones, no contact with the outside world. Just putting one foot in front of the other.  Reaching Base Camp would be an incredible life achievement for me, that’s the major goal. The views are bound to be mind-blowing. The journey it takes to get there is just another hurdle to overcome.”