Salix Homes employees support Nepal Appeal after colleague caught up in earthquake disaster

Employees at Salix Homes have been raising money for Nepal in honour of a colleague who was caught up in the earthquake disaster.

Wehave raised more than £260 for the Nepal Earthquake Appeal after ourproject officer Emma Robinson found herself at the centre of the tragedy, in which 8,000 people have been killed.

Emma, from Swinton, was on the trip of a lifetime trekking the 17,590ft to Everest Base Camp.

Emma, 34, was travelling with a friend and was part of a group of 14 that arrived at base camp on April 23 – two days before the Earthquake struck in western Nepal.

She said: “We’d left base camp and had been trekking down the mountain for two days when the earthquake hit. “We didn’t realise what it was at first, my first thought was ‘I’m going to fall over’, the ground started moving and my legs were going all over the place.

“Then the guides shouted at us all to get down because they knew it was an earthquake and the mountain started shaking.

“You could hear the boulders crashing through the trees on the other side of the mountain. I don’t know how nothing came down on our side, but thankfully we were totally unharmed.”

After the initial tremor hit, Emma and her group faced an arduous trek to get down the mountain to safety.

She added: “There were cracks in the path all the way down and we had to climb over boulders and we could see a lot of the houses had been damaged. But even then we didn’t realise how bad it was, it was only when we made it back to the guest house and realised it was all over the news.

“I turned my phone on and I had all these messages and missed calls from my friends and family. The phone lines were all down and you couldn’t always get a signal, but I managed to speak to my dad and let my family know I was safe, they were just so relieved.”

Unable to catch their flight to Kathmandu, Emma and the group were stranded in Namche for three days – the site where a second earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale struck this week.

Emma added: “There were aftershocks every day and it was quite scary if you were inside when they hit because there was always a danger that the roof would cave in. In the end we had to charter a helicopter to get us to the airport at Lukla and we were able to fly out from there.”

After hearing of Emma’s lucky escape her colleagues at Salix Homes organised a bake sale, dress down day and meditation session to raise money for the disaster appeal.

Emma added: “We were very, very lucky to get away unharmed as just two days earlier we‘d been at base camp where a lot of people were killed and injured. “The news of the second earthquake in Namche this week really brings it home as that’s where we were only days ago. It is a beautiful country in the depths of a major catastrophe so I’d like to thank all my colleagues at Salix Homes for doing their bit to raise money for the cause.”