'Everest saved my life for a second time'

Jordan Chhetri (centre) climbed Everest to raise money for charity

A man who climbed Mount Everest to raise money for the hospital that cared for him when he had cancer as a teenager said the challenge "saved my life for a second time".

Jordan Chhetri was treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma at Southampton General Hospital's Piam Brown unit, after being diagnosed in 2009 aged 13.

After he recovered, he said his life "spiralled out of control" until he decided to climb Mount Everest, giving him purpose again.

Now 30, Mr Chhetri has completed his challenge and raised more than £6,000 for the Southampton Hospitals Charity.

Mr Chhetri said he did not like the way he was living after he recovered from cancer.

He said he was drinking too much and had health issues, until he had a wake-up call aged 27.

"I wanted to change my life," he said. "I wanted the challenge."

Mr Chhetri was given a 20% chance of survival after tumour was discovered near his heart aged 13

After months of training, he arrived in Nepal in March, documenting every stage of the journey on his Perform With Purpose Instagram page.

He spent two-and-a-half weeks at Base Camp, waiting for the right weather conditions, before finally being given the go ahead to proceed to the summit.

"I was nervous and excited and scared - but most importantly I was ready to do it," he said.

Mr Chhetri suffered from altitude sickness in the approach to Base Camp

He said the Khumbu Icefall, which sits just above Base Camp, was "the most dangerous part of Everest".

"Every time I went there it changed," he said.

"It's like a living thing. It does what it wants."

He said when he reached the summit, he had not slept for three days because it was so cold and he "fell to his knees and just said 'mum, dad... I've made it'".

Mr Chhetri did not sleep for three days in the approach to the summit

And the journey down also came with challenges.

He encountered a dead body on Hilary Step, a vertical cliff face near the summit.

"You're so close to it, it's unbelievable," he said.

Distracted by what he had seen, he tripped and fell 49.2ft (15m), leaving him "dangling upside down on a cliff edge".

"That was a scary moment," he said. "If you lose concentration up there, you're done."

Mr Chhetri said a rope saved his life when he tripped and fell 49.2ft

Despite the challenges, Mr Chhetri said it was worth it, adding: "I was raising money for the ward that saved my life."

And he said the magnitude of what he did had still not sunk in.

"It still hasn't hit me that I have summitted Mount Everest," he said.

"I was on top of the world."