Timsbury teen, Harry Leakey, and two of his friends, Sam Cox and Max Brindley, all Year 10 pupils at Kingswood School in Bath, are preparing for the trip of a lifetime after finishing their GCSEs next summer. The trio will be travelling to Dharamsala, India, and finishing their journey in Tibet, all the while helping good causes along the way, including a women’s doll-making co-operative, helping to build part of a new school and providing clean, safe drinking water.

The students will be joining twenty others on the trip, which is being organised through Global Action, in conjunction with Kingswood School, with over 120 applying for the chance to go. They will be away for three weeks and have been busy raising funds for the charities that they will be helping, amassing over £3,000 between them already with a total target of £6,000.

On Friday, 2nd September, the boys set off on a 164km fundraising walk which they have been training hard for this summer, along the Cotswold Way. On the first day, they walked for twelve hours, fourteen hours on day two in horrendous weather conditions, and fifteen hours on day three, walking on average just over 34 miles per day and carrying their own food, water, camping equipment and clothing, finishing on the Sunday evening at Bath Abbey.

Harry’s mother, Claire, said: “The boys decided to organise the walk themselves and to raise the money, all of the organisation they did on their own.

“They did great, but it was hard work, especially on the Saturday in such awful weather. We are very proud of them, as are the school.”

Whilst in India and Tibet, Harry, Sam and Max will be involved with the Dolls4Tibet women’s co-operative, which supports socially disadvantaged Indian women in making children’s dolls, gaining a sense of self-achievement and working on their self-esteem. They will also be joining Blue Ulla, which produces high quality, fairtrade knitwear to improve the lives of both local Indian and refugee women and Tong-Len, a UK charity set up in 2005 by Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala to help the Indian community that welcomed and supported them in exile.

During their travels, the boys will also be involved with building part of a school and a greenhouse, so that children can eat organic, locally sourced food and will also be working on a water project to provide safe, clean drinking water. They will also be teaching English to children.

Harry would like to thank the Timsbury Jubilee Trust Fund for their kind donation and Radio Bristol, who interviewed the boys live as they left for their walking challenge. A massive thank you to all of the friends and family who have also donated and supported them so far. If any readers would like to add to the total, they can do so via: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/India2017povertyreduction