TWO police personnel from Grimsby are safe and well despite being caught up in a "dreadful storm" on Mount Everest which is thought to have claimed the lives of at least 26 trekkers and three farmers.
PC Jason McCusker and crime team office manager Andy Thorpe, who both work at Grimsby Police Station, this week reached 'base camp' after a grueling three-week trek.
PC McCusker has raised almost £3,000 for St Andrew's Hospice in Grimsby in honour of Rio Jacombe, a two-year-old currently receiving palliative care at the hospice.
Andy is raising money for London's Great Ormond Street Hospital where his young nephew Oliver has received treatment.
BBC South Asia Editor Charles Haviland said the last few weeks had been one the deadliest spells of bad weather ever seen in the region.
PC McCusker said the emergency helicopter had to make "at least 20 rescues" and added: "Several people have been injured and killed whilst we have been here including many dead in an avalanche."
He said: "It was quite a dreadful storm that came over and lasted two days and was a complete white out blizzard and we struggled to see more than 20 feet and the going was slow."
See tomorrow's Grimsby Telegraph to hear more of their harrowing treck.
