Clem: The climb of my life.....

To be perfectly honest I was always a bit..... charity, how am I going to fit that in? It is difficult to commit when I get asked to support events, as a lot of the time I don't know where I am going to be from one day to the next.

This time last year I was at the Football League chairman's conference in Malta. I did a bit of talk for them and that was when Marie Curie were introduced as the official charity partner.

October / November time I was at the Football League offices when this trek came up and I thought 'I quite fancy doing that'.

Of course, I've done nothing until March time and then realised everyone has been fundraising all the time - it was a nice relief to pass my target minutes ago.

The Football League's arch-nemesis, The League Manager's Association, took me over the £5,000 mark - but we still hope for more.

But football in general has been brilliant and I've been backed from all over the world - Five Live listeners, newspaper readers and football sponsors Eon, Barclays and npower all contributed.

The PFA have pledged £500, Shaun Derry at QPR and Clarke Carlisle at Burnley have put in, and not only that I've bumped into people while I've been walking around.

A couple of weeks ago I was around Sunderland, been walking a few yards and a couple of old boys recognised me, they stopped, asked what I was up to and gave me a tenner between them - fantastic.

There is a personal angle for me, I can resonate with the charity and anyone out there who has been involved with a terminally ill patient.

I lost my mum to cancer when she was just 58 and from diagnosis to death she lasted just six months.

The call from the hospital to say she had the big c, the call from my dad to say the main op hadn't worked and she wasn't long left for this world, it registers.

The work those nurses do is unreal. I was at a fund-raiser for the charity in London the other week, where I was told £20 buys a nursing hour, it's nothing in the grand scale of things of it. And it brings so much help and assurance with it.

Someone was telling me Steve Gibson has a personal trainer and has lost a couple of stone for this - I'll have a word with him when we meet at Heathrow on Thursday tea-time and see how he is shaping up!

I've heard you can lose up to a stone during the trek. I had Ben Shepherd (ex-GMTV, now Sky Sports) on the Football League podcast recently and he did the Comic Relief trek with Cheryl Cole, Denise van Outen and the like - he had days when he was looking at Cheryl's bottom from close range and I'm stuck with Kammy and Ade Boothroyd!

He was telling me to keep eating and that's not something I'm used to. I like a big meal, but I'm not one for snacking.

But, as you are walking - and some days are five hours, stop for lunch, then another five hours - you've got to keep taking water down, keep eating sugary snacks and sweets, eat nuts.

Altitude sickness is what we are all worried about - it's not pleasant apparently. They say it's like having the worst hangover you have ever had, while still being drunk. That's the one thing that I am anxioius about and everyone else too.

I think I am right in saying Roman Abramovic didn't make it to the top and I know for a fact that Martina Navratilova didn't, they had to take her off the ascent. It's a hard slog.

It's not mountaineering, I gather the phrase the porters will keep shouting is 'pullet, pullet' which is slowly.

They want us to keep going, but at a reduced pace, while gaining altitude all the time we go.

Dealing with the sickness is the big thing - viagra tablets are supposed to be one way, but sharing a tent with Brendan Rodgers may not appeal in normal circumstances, never mind after taking that!

There's a thing called diamox, used for treating glaucoma which you are supposed to take 24 hours before setting off, but I'm told the after affects are tingling fingers and toes before you even started the climb up.

So, not being happy with the idea, I went off to a Chinese herbalist in Newcastle.

Herbs help build up persistence and the like.

I'm getting bags of twigs, bark, berries - stuff you find in your compost.

I got seven bags for £35, put them in a pan, boil up, drain off and my heart and lungs will be fine.

So I get home, try it out and couldn't get one sip down, vile wasn't the word for it, so I've succumbed to the diamox.

It's a dear do, quite an investment in all seriousness. Malaria tablets, yellow fever injections, and we are going from bright sunshine to minus 20 in the latter stages, so I've got a real thick, duckdown sleeping bag, thick jacket.

And right on top there's snow so you can get snow blindness so we need real wrap around sunglasses. There's not much we don't need to take!

But you can't spoil the experience by not getting it right.

You've got to prepare properly and I've put some hours in walking. I did a big trek around Stanhope last week, then a huge one around Sheepwash and Osmotherly, time in the gym and I've just got back from getting soaked around Roseberry Topping, Captain Cook's Monument and Great Ayton.

I go to the gym - it may not look like it - a couple of times a week and, as a family, we walked Hadrian's Wall from start to finish in six days a couple of years back.

One day we did 12 miles, another 19, I'm quite good at keeping going - the difference was that then my reward was warm nights in the middle of summer and the chance to stay in a nice little B&B with a few pints of ale and a hearty meal.

This time, I'm sleeping on a mat, rubbing down with a wet wipe, using a bucket for a toilet and hoping I don't burst in when Steve Gibson is in there!

There's a good mix going, an interesting mix at that. Obviously Kammy is the figurehead through The Football League and Marie Curie Cancer Care, Steve Gibson's brother Dave is coming - and he's the dad of Ben Gibson, who has made his debut for Boro and is said to be the next big thing to come out of the academy.

But the newsy one now is Brendan Rodgers after promotion. The Swansea boss is trying to do transfers and has just signed Danny Graham as I write this!

I'm sure he will be trying to do deals out there, but we have been told not to promise anyone they will get a call or text at any one time. I hope, however, to keep in touch with The Northern Echo and write a piece from the climb.

Brendan lost his mum to cancer last year and his dad is suffering too, so there's a real personal aspect for it for us both.

We meet at Terminal Four at Heathrow at 5pm tomorrow, we need to take as light a bag as possible, we've got to wear our boots which we walk in - it saves space and you don't want to lose them in your bag in transit!

Then off we go, fly via Narobi, arrive at the hotel lunchtime Friday, and have early night - although Kammy will want a pint to keep him going for the week.

It's an early start Saturday and it takes six days to the summit. On summit night we get up at midnight, the idea that we hit the top at sunrise, then another eight hours down that day to a low base camp and then push on for the return home.

It will be an experience, a living experience and one we will always cherish.

To donate to the cause, visit Clem's fund-raising page:

www.justgiving.com/markclemmit