My planned assault on the summit of Everest is becoming more of a reality, in my mind at least, as I begin to look at relevant training climbs and courses which will not only give me an idea of the technical knowledge I will require to scale the dizzy heights of the tallest mountain in the world, but also the fitness levels I will need to even stand a chance of being successful in my bid.

Any thoughts I may have had that I could reach the summit of Everest without putting myself out too much have vanished and I am now left with the reality of what I have said I will do, how I can achieve it, and a real sense of excitement in what lies ahead. One thing I have promised myself, and my wife, is that I will never dream up something like this again and I mean it.

The idea to climb Everest came about following a documentary I watched back in May 2009. I have always admired people who go out and achieve things that most of us only dream of and to see Russell Brice co-ordinate a team of diverse individuals up Mount Everest with varying results was no exception.

"I would be able to do that," I thought to myself as I lay on my sofa eating straight out of a large tin of Miniature Heroes.

It was a safe declaration as no one else was in the room and I could always convince myself that I was to too busy to take on such a challenge at any point in the near future and therefore not lose face.

Strangely, and unlike most ideas I have about taking on massive challenges without understanding what is involved, I couldn't get Everest out of my head.

Over the next few days I scoured the net and read constantly about the mountain and those people who had taken it on, some had succeeded in reaching the summit and making it back down safely and some had not. Each had their own individual take on what had gone wrong, what had gone right and what they would have done differently given the chance. Not one person has ever claimed to have conquered Everest though, not matter how many times they have been up. Everyone I have read about or spoken to has categorically stated that they have simply achieved a personal goal in what they did.

The mountain could never be conquered, she was simply there to be sampled at your peril and if she didn't like you, you would not live to tell the tale.

Later on in May my father was delivered with the news that he had bowel cancer and that there was nothing that could be done to treat him. This obviously came as a massive shock to my father and all of his family.

A natural reaction is to want to do something to help, but in this instance, there was nothing that could be done other than to spend as much time with my father as possible and make sure that he made the most of the time he has left.

At the time of writing my father is reacting well to Chemo and we hope that Christmas will be an enjoyable one for the whole family.

One thing that I can do is to help Bowel Cancer UK raise awareness of the illness, campaign for better treatment and diagnosis and to let people know what the symptoms are of bowel cancer.

Every year in the UK 37,500 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer and although it is one of the most treatable cancers if it is found early, more than 16,000 people a year die of the disease, mainly down to late diagnosis which is the result of numerous factors, not least ignorance which is something that can be changed.

To that end I put two and two together and, as usual, came up with about fourteen and I decided to climb Everest in aid of Bowel Cancer UK.

Having done a lot of research and taken a lot of advice, spring 2012 gave me a barely realistic and immensely tough challenge to gain the required technical knowledge, fitness levels and training climbs under my belt to attempt a summit of Mount Everest.

So that's where I am at with a fundraising target of £100k, a whole host of events to organise and a fantastic support base headed by my fabulous and ever-suffering wife, who despite her anxieties and trepidation surrounding my plans, is supporting me to the end.

Without her I can definitely say none of this would be possible.

Fundraising has taken a slow but steady start but as I keep reminding myself, this is a marathon not a sprint and 2010 will see a whole host of events happening and hopefully raising many thousands for charity.

One area I do have to concentrate my efforts on is obtaining a form of corporate sponsorship whereby I hope to persuade a company to contribute towards the costs of the expedition (which is expensive) and thereby allow ALL the money I raise to go directly to the cause it was intended for. In return for the financial support I would carry to the summit of Everest a company logo, I would wear their logo and all my climbing gear and advertise their company at every given opportunity, whatever they asked for really. At the end of the day without some form of sponsorship I may never see the summit of Mount Everest so I would be willing to do pretty much anything for them.

I intend to regularly update this blog with training progress, climbs I do in practise for the big one and fundraising achievements. I have a dedicated website at www.climb.daveoneverest.com a fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/climbthehill where you can make online donations and I will be advertising local events and fundraising activities through the Press and local Radio so please keep a look out for what's going on and feel free to contact me with words of encouragement or advice. I am currently selling raffle tickets at just £1 each. The draw will take place at York City FC on October 10th 2009 and there are some fantastic prizes on offer. Please contact me to purchase your tickets. To find out more about Bowel Cancer UK and the great work they do please visit www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk .