FOUR men endured temperatures of minus 20 degrees, altitude sickness and daily 10-hour treks to reach Everest Base Camp to help terminally ill children.

Stuart Roe, Adam Dean and Simon Taylor from Bournemouth along with Tim Denney from Southampton, otherwise known as Team Stu, decided to ditch Christmas and New Year in the UK to raise money for Naomi House & Jacksplace Hospices.

Stuart said: “People tend to think Base Camp is at the bottom of the mountain. They couldn’t be more wrong. Oxygen levels at 17,600 feet drop by fifty per cent. Despite our gym training it’s been gruelling. We came close to giving up.”

After descending the world’s most famous mountain, they trekked 50km up to the highest freshwater lake system in the world – the Gokyo Lakes in Nepal, at over 16,000 feet.

While, friends of Team Stu have also been doing their bit back in Bournemouth to help.

They pleaded with people not to send them Christmas cards this year, but to donate instead to the charity through the Stuart’s Story JustGiving page.

Adrian Britton, Former ITN Correspondent. said: “Fortunately I have two very healthy daughters. I can’t imagine what it must be like in this festive season for other families. I much preferred even a fifty pence Christmas card to be spent helping them instead.”

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood said: “I hope many will recognise the commitment these guys are making, especially being away from their own families at this time of year and help them meet the £5,000 target.”

Lisa Congdon, business and development fundraiser at Naomi House & Jacksplace, said: “Reaching Everest Base Camp is a phenomenal challenge and we are incredibly grateful to the whole team. We hope that the knowledge they are helping hundreds of life-threatened children will spur them on when legs get weary and the oxygen levels inevitably drop.”

To make a donation visit justgiving.com/fundraising/everestchallange2017.