A NINE-year-old survivor of the Nepal earthquake from Farnham has completed an epic 100-mile cycle ride in aid of the ongoing disaster relief effort.

Paul Collins, now a pupil of Hale School, was living in Kathmandu in April 2015 when the devastating magnitude eight earthquake struck - killing more than 8,000 people including 21 climbers on Mount Everest, injuring in excess of 21,000 and rendering many more families homeless. 

The schoolboy, whose dad Steve was working as Christian Aid charity Tearfund’s Nepal representative, survived unscathed and returned with his family to their home in Heath End in July 2015.

But having experienced at first hand the impact the earthquake had on the lives of thousands of Nepalis, Paul has vowed to support Tearfund’s quake recovery work and over the Easter weekend pedalled more than 100 miles across North Yorkshire.

Despite encountering rain, mud, cold and the worst hills the North York Moors could throw at him, Paul completed the journey from Rosedale Abbey to Whitby in just four days and has raised more than £3,000 and counting to support victims of the disaster.

Writing on his charity fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/cycling4nepal, Paul said: “I’ve done it! 105 miles in total! Thanks to everyone who has given me so much support. Its been a brilliant experience.”

Paul’s route followed the Yorkshire ‘Moor to Sea’ cycle network and he was supported in sections by his mum Jude, dad Steve and 12-year-old sister Amy who is a student at Heath End School.

The family encountered many challenges along the way, but throughout the four days were spurred on by their memories of the events of April 25 in Nepal and the devastation that followed.

Reflecting on the fateful morning of April 25 last year, mum Jude told The Herald: “Steve had just left that morning to fly out to the Middle East on business and myself and Paul were in church when at about midday suddenly the buildings started to shake.

“It was one of those times when everything slows down and we thought ‘ok this is it, this is the big one that we’ve been warned about, who knows if we get out of here alive or not’. There’s nothing you can do, you just have to wait until it stopped.

“We later worked out that Steve’s plane must have left the runway only 20 minutes before the earthquake, and after landing in Dubai he immediately got the message that the earthquake had happened and we were safe.

“It was a great relief for all of us to know everyone was ok, but Steve couldn’t get back for a long time because the airport was shut for 48 hours. Time stood still, it was a really strange time.

“In our part of Kathmandu lots of boundary walls came down and there was obvious evidence of destruction. But as the days went on we became more and more aware that in the countryside the devastation was massive.

“It was a very dramatic time. In the days following the quake we experienced multiple after-shocks and some really strong ones so we camped out in our back garden for about a week or so until we felt safe enough to go back inside. And then of course there was another big earthquake on May 15 which took everybody by surprise.

“It was a time of bonding with the Nepali community because we were all going through it together. But certainly after the May earthquake there was a palpable sense of fear over what is going to happen next and people stayed living outside for a long long time. It was a scary time.”

Jude, whose family had already lived in Kathmandu for three years when the quake struck, added they were prepared “as far as we could be” for an earthquake and kept a stash of essential supplies in their garden shed.

They were fortunate that their own house escaped serious damage. However, Jude added many of the older, more traditional houses, and particularly taller buildings in Nepal suffered devastating damage.

“The buildings in the rural areas are all built with traditional materials - stone and mud - and the farm buildings are relatively tall with a bottom layer shared with the animals and two upper layers where they store the grain and agricultural equipment,” she said.

“The top half of a lot of these buildings completely collapsed so a lot of people had lost their grain stores, equipment and livestock, which represents their bank and their livelihoods. It was awful.”

Jude herself contributed to the subsequent relief efforts, visiting the communities worst effected and relaying their stories back to Tearfund while her husband helped co-ordinate the charity’s response to the crisis.

Initially, this included providing temporary shelters, equipment, water and all the essential things victims of the disaster needed to survive and get through the Nepali monsoon and winter.

But longer term, Tearfund is now at the centre of efforts to help Nepalis rebuild their lives and livelihoods - building up the country’s resilience so that if it happens again, people are in a much stronger position to survive and bounce back.

Jude, who is also an active member of the Farnham Vineyard Church congregation, continued: “There is an ongoing need for aid but now it’s more long term. After the earthquake in Haiti, the Tearfund response went on for years because it takes a lot longer than one year for a community to rebuild and reduce any sense of dependency on help from the outside.

“Nepal is a country in development and it’s still got a long way to go. Before the earthquake, it was definitely on the up and more people were being released out of poverty. Unfortunately the quake will have really knocked it back.

“But we know from experience the people are very resilient and from a family point of view it was an amazing place to live. It was brilliant, we loved it and feel very connected to the country and I think the earthquake deepened that sense of connection.

“We’ll have that forever but it is very much who we are and we wouldn’t change that for anything."

Donations to Paul’s fundraising page and Tearfund’s ongoing relief efforts can be made online at www.justgiving.com/cycling4nepal.