Simon Beacham (59), Managing Director of the Redditch based Fit Out and Refurbishment company ABC Solutions (UK) Limited has recently fulfilled a lifetime achievement to trek to Everest Base Camp. This was a dream shared with his business partner Alan Carter who sadly died back in June 2019 from Motor Neurone Disease.

Simon and Alan were business partners for 25 years, based in Redditch, and the two of them discussed the trek to Everest and agreed if one of them did it, the other would join them. Sadly Alan (63) was diagnosed with MND in November 2017, a progressive, degenerative disease for which there is no cure.

Alan’s New Years message to his family and friends was “to go out and do everything you want to do while you can, you don’t know how long you’ve got”. By this time he was totally paralysed and in need of 24/7 care.

The MNDA offered a place on the Everest Base Camp Trek in exchange for a minimum donation pledge which has been exceeded almost twice fold from the generosity of friends, business colleagues and the local community.

The trek to base camp took 9 days with an additional 4-day return journey after taking into account elevation and acclimatisation to altitude. Simon commented on the enormity of the Sagarmatha National Park, now a National World Heritage Site, saying “The mountain ranges, rivers, wildlife and skies were of a scale never seen before, it’s a mountaineer’s dream on a large scale”

Simon had discussed the trip with Alan before his passing and pledged to take Alan with him in spirit and to this end he took a small casque of Alan’s ashes and laid them to rest at the memorial cairns high up in the Himalayan Mountains at an area known as Chukla Lare.

If you wish to make a donation, please visit Simon’s just giving page below;

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/simon-beacham2

To read more about this story, please visit the link below;

www.stratford-herald.com/104596-everest-trek-memory-alan.html