It’s a case of “Climb every mountain’ or “Aint no mountain high enough” as a musical loving taxi driver from Whitley Bay and his son prepare to scale part of the world’s highest peak.
Stan Hind (60) and his son Glen (25) will be spending most of May trekking in the Himalayas to raise much-needed funds for St Oswald’s Hospice on an expedition to Everest base camp.
Stan who has worked for EastCoast Taxis for 16 years is also a keen member of Whitley Bay Operatic Society and his son Glen has a part time role at Whitley Bay Playhouse and he also was stage manager for the recent production of “Our House.”
However, once the pair land at Kathmandu in Nepal, treading the boards will be a thing of the past as they trek along thick jungle paths and sleep in the homes of locals along the route.
“I’m swapping my EastCoast taxi for a Yak,” said Stan. “We’ll be allocated our own animal to help carry all of our gear but with the steep climbs and the effects of altitude sickness it’s going to be very tough indeed.
“We’ll be following in the footsteps of famous mountaineers walking along the trails of the Giant Himalayas through Sherpa villages, trekking near glaciers to base camp some 5500m above sea level. It will be a once in a lifetime achievement that will go a long way to helping other people too.
” Recently, a very important friend of the family finally lost his battle with Motor Neuron. Thanks to the work of St Oswald’s he had a comfortable last few days and slipped away peacefully. We will always be indebted to St Oswald’s for looking after him.”
The pair are practising for the trek by jogging on the beach, workouts in the gym and weekend rigorous fell walking. They are also raising funds by bag packing at local supermarkets and holding charity fund raising nights. They’ve also set up their own fundraising pages at Justgiving.com/glenhind and Justgiving.com/stanhind.
Paul Irwin who runs EastCoast Taxis is delighted with their efforts and proud of the father and son team.
“We’ve got some great people working with us at EastCoast and sometimes I’m really surprised at the lengths people go to in order to help others. I wish them every bit of luck and will be following their progress every step of the way. It’s great to help such a worthy charity and we’ll be supporting their efforts in what ever way we can.