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Tripoli, Lebanon We have a Safe Area in our apartment, a place you are meant to run when the proverbial hits the fan. I presume that is when you lock the door, close your eyes and pray the baddies do not find you. It is certainly a daily reminder that however blue the skies outside, however broad the locals’ smiles, for any humanitarian worker there remains a permanent threat and risk. The figures are quite daunting. In the last decade, the risk of injury or kidnap to humanitarian staff has increased tenfold.[...]

Litochoro, Greece Someone died today, in a most horrible way. Death in the mountains is always ghastly, invariably unexpected and frequently plucks a young person from a life of ambition, an existence full of future, and rips a family apart. Today has been no exception. He was from the Balkans – I do not know his name – but he was attempting to reach the summit of Mount Olympus in Greece. In his late twenties, he was climbing with a group of friends. One in particular was right beside him. Then, for[...]

Alexandria, Egypt If I can thank the Army for anything, it has been the ability to withstand a cold shower without too much screaming. The hopping from foot to foot, the occasional sharp intake of breath, the thumping of shoulder blades to keep warm under a torrent of icy water. Each will have a tactic of their own. Mine is never to stand directly under the thing but just to one edge of the water stream. In goes a foot, a quick splash, out it comes, on with the soap, into the[...]

Perth, Australia I thought I was fit until I visited Australia; I then realised I was a beginner. It was 6.15 a.m. on a Sunday morning, a time of day when the UK’s streets are so often bare. It is my favourite time to go for a morning run. Actually it is not so much a run as a stationary jog. You know the sort, where you look like a lifeless, slow-motion, ageing manikin running head down against a non-existent wind. That was me in Perth, Western Australia, as the dawn was[...]

Tacloban, Phillipines There is something about disasters; by definition they come at the most unexpected time. For me, when summoned to join the United Kingdom’s Disaster Emergency Response, I have so often been up a mountain. For the Great Earthquake of Kashmir I was in the Peaks, for Java it was Snowdon, for Haiti it was…. okay so here goes…in the bath, for Libya it was Chamonix and for the Philippines I was at the top of the Lake District’s Pike of Stickle. It was November 2013 and my mobile let out[...]

Istanbul, Turkey I knew there was trouble when I smelt the burning rubber, the smoke billowing from the darkened, half derelict room. This was Taksim Square in June 2013, the heart of Istanbul, and once a popular resting place to escape the organised yet crazy chaos of the ancient city of Constantinople. Someone had set tyres alight, but within seconds I saw the young masked man extinguish the flames with a properly handled extinguisher. The starting point was a collection of sycamore trees that the government threatened to fell to make room[...]