California man to climb North Africa's highest mountain for Penny Appeal

Haseeb Akhtar, of California Terrace, California, signed up to scale Mount Toubkal in Morocco – North Africa’s highest mountain – at the start of this year to raise money for the Penny Appeal Emergency Response programme.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic has meant the June 29-July 4 charity effort is likely to be postponed, forcing the first-time mountaineer to alter his training regime and prepare himself for the mission all while sticking to lockdown guidelines.

Haseeb has also been observing Ramadan for the past month which has meant he’s found getting fit even harder as he’s unable to eat or drink for around 16 hours a day.

The 33-year-old, who works as an ICT analyst with East Dunbartonshire Council, has had to resort to walking round the hills of California and Shieldhill as a way of preparing himself for the trek, whenever that may be.

He is eager to take on the challenge after learning of the work Penny Appeal does to support those in places like Syria, Yemen and Southern Africa survive war, famine and natural disasters. In the last 11 years, the charity has protected 1.7 million lives from danger.

Haseeb said: “After reading about what Penny Appeal do for countries that have been hit by natural disasters, conflicts, and also speaking to family and friends who have done marathons to raise money for this charity, I went ahead and registered to trek Mount Toubkal to raise as much money as I can.

“With the help of family, friends and colleagues at my work, I have passed the halfway mark of my £2000 target. All the money raised goes directly to the charity.

“For training, the plan was to trek Mount Snowdon with the charity and to meet the rest of the team and then I was planning on trekking up Ben Nevis before the Mount Toubkal trek but due to coronavirus and the lockdown, it couldn’t be done.

“All the training I’ve been able to do is just going out for long walks, which doesn’t really help. Where I stay in California is mostly hills. I’m also doing weight lifting.

“I’ve no trekking experience. The highest I’ve climbed is the Ochils but that was when I was in high school!

“One of my cousins down south and family friends do marathons for charities like Macmillan and they were saying there are charity challenges so I looked at the Penny Appeal and thought, ‘That’s interesting!’

“They’re going to decide if it will be rescheduled on June 5 or 6. Hopefully it will go ahead in August, September or October.”

To support his fundraiser, Haseeb is planning to hold an online prize draw at the end of the first week in June.

Prizes on offer include a three-tier Cookie Monster vanilla sponge cake and a servicing of a gas central heating boiler.

Haseeb added: “A few people have asked if some of the money is paying for the trek but I’m financing that separately.

“I’d like to thank my family, friends and anyone who has donated.

“I’d also like to thank Plumb Spares, Piece of Cake by Barbara and Next for donating prizes and my colleagues and East Dunbartonshire Council for helping out.”

Click here to donate to Haseeb’s fundraising page.