A BIRMINGHAM recruitment consultant is nearing the end of an adventure of a lifetime to raise money for Birmingham-based charity, The Giles’ Trust.

Since the beginning of the year Reena Nathwani, of the Brindleyplace-based Parna Group, together with her friend Ben King, have been taking part in a gruelling 3,500km (2,175 miles) trip across the Indian sub-continent in what is described as a “seven horsepower glorified lawnmower”.

A catalogue of breakdowns, dead bodies, road chaos, sanitation issues, Delhi Belly and irate policemen have so far failed to thwart the dynamic duo from their quest to raise £3,000 for the charity trust, established by former Warwickshire and England cricketer Ashley Giles and his wife Stine.

Reena’s adventurous nature and a desire to visit her homeland finally persuaded her to embark on the expedition and to make the epic trip even more worthwhile she has decided to do the whole journey on a little Tut as part of the annual Rickshaw Run.

She said: “For the last five years I’ve been wanting to travel India. I’m of Indian origin but whenever I go back to India it’s always to visit family, which is amazing as I learn more about my traditions and family history but I never really get to see the country in its true light.

“I met Ben in Thailand in 2012 where we spoke about places we have travelled and countries and adventures on our wish list… India and the Rickshaw Run was high on both our lists. “

King, originally from Australia, currently lives in Dubai working for EMC as a solutions architect.

“I live in Birmingham and own a recruitment company, the Parna Group. We both love travel but that was as much as we knew about each other,” she added.

“So what could possibly go wrong with spending every second of the day together travelling 3,500km on the worst roads in the world for 14 days, with no set route, back-up and if you breakdown then you fix it yourself.”

And breakdown they have…lots of times.                                                                

“We’ve had about 25 breakdowns so far; some days we’ve had as many as four or five and it’s very tiring,” said Reena.

“Yesterday we broke down somewhere, I’m not even sure where and it happened to be outside a public toilet and the smell was just awful.

“Nevertheless it’s been a fantastic experience, we’ve met some wonderful people and seen so many amazing things.

“What’s been even better is when you tell people why you are doing it and who you are doing it for then people have dropped everything to help.

“I was staggered, even in some of the remotest parts of the country if you happen to mention the name of England cricketer Ashley Giles then people know who he is; they are just cricket-mad here.”

Reena opted to try and help the Giles’ Trust because a good friend lost her mother to a brain tumour.

“I watched the two years of suffering the family went though. It’s a horrible illness. The Giles’ Trust is a great little charity that actually makes a difference to people’s lives. Only 1% of all cancer funding is allocated to brain tumours,” she said.

Her aim is to raise £3,000 on the trip and with just a few days left she a little over two-thirds of the way to her target.

“If people want to support us then that would be terrific. It’s such a worthy cause,” she added.

Giles said: “Having travelled a lot through India during the course of my cricketing career I’m very familiar with the Tut Tut and so I’m full of admiration for anyone who is prepared to go to such lengths to raise money for the trust.

“We are a relatively young organisation but we have already raised more than £50,000 so I would like to thank everyone who has supported us so far.

“I would like to wish Reena and Ben all the best because it is due to their efforts and people like them that we are able to provide funds for such a worthy cause. I would urge others to support them if you can.”

The trip, which began in Cohin, South India on December 29, will end in Jaisalmer, Rajasthanon Sunday (January 14).

To support Reena and the charity please visit the link
https://www.justgiving.com/KeepCalmandKormaOnTheGilesTrust

To see more about her adventure visit the Facebook page Keep Calm and Korma On

The Giles Trust

Former Warwickshire and England cricketer Ashley Giles, together with his wife Stine helped launch the brain tumour charity last year to support care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

In 2006, the England Ashes tour in Australia came to an abrupt end for Giles as he rushed home to be with Stine, who had been diagnosed with a brain tumour.  
After successful removal of the tumour and further treatment they were both devastated when in 2012 they learned that two more tumours had been discovered which required subsequent immediate attention.

The treatment Stine received was so new that she was one of the first people in the UK to go through it. She underwent treatment on a new TomoTherapy machine, bought by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Charity just weeks before.  

Without it there were little options of treatment left.  Experiencing first-hand how important research and new treatments were, Stine promised herself that if everything went well and her prognosis was good that she would endeavour to raise funds to help fund brain tumour research in the future.

Thankfully Stine’s pioneering treatment worked well and, although she continues to have regular checks and scans, she is back enjoying life with her family and is now fulfilling the promise she made to support research into brain tumours through the launch of a brand new fund, The Giles’ Trust.

Continuing under the care of Professor Garth Cruickshank at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, money raised through The Giles’ Trust will be directed to world class brain tumour research here in the West Midlands.

For more information about the trust visit www.thegilestrust.org