A BRAVE paramedic is spending up to £2,000 of his own money to travel to Nepal and help with the aftermath of the earthquake disaster.

Phil Llewellyn, from Norton near Worcester, is travelling on Monday and hopes to do whatever he can to contribute to the rescue effort.

The dad-of-two has visited Nepal on a number of occasions and has been inspired by a heartbreaking message from one of his friends there.

Towns and villages in the country have suffered almost total devastation, with 6,204 people known to have died and 13,932 injured.

Mr Llewellyn, aged 45, said: "I've been to Nepal numerous times to do high-altitude climbs and trekking.

"Each time I've used the same set of partners and guides and they come from a village that isn't far from the epicentre of the earthquake.

"After seeing what happened it felt quite personal to me as I've been to the country and I know the culture and the people.

"I was in touch with all the agencies but you have to be registered to them and I'm not, so initially it looked like it wasn't going to happen.

"But what really pushed me to find a way to get there was when I had a heartfelt email from one of the guides, Santaman, saying he had lost his father.

"His wife and kids are ok but they're sleeping outside in a field..

"Pretty much everything has been destroyed, there's no electricity, no water."

Mr Llewellyn, an advanced community paramedic for Pershore and his colleague Ed Hullah from Shropshire have both been granted unpaid leave by West Midlands Ambulance Service to travel over to help in Nepal.

However, as they have both had to self-fund the trip, Mr Llewyellyn - who has been a paramedic for 13 years - estimated the journey could cost in the region of £2,000.

He is leaving for Kathmandu on Monday morning and is due back in around three weeks.

However, his wife Liz has mixed feelings about his journey.

Mr Llewellyn said: "My last trip to Nepal was before we had our children and I asked Liz if she wanted to go up Everest and she said ok.

"So the last time I went there I went up and was stood at the base camp where the people were which you saw on TV.

"She has mixed emotions as she wants me to go so that I can help but she also wants me to be safe."

Mr Llewellyn is currently in the process of setting up a JustGiving page so people can donate to his cause.

The email from Mr Llewellyn's Nepalese friend Santaman Tamang which inspired his trip:

"Yes, arrived to Kathmandu hardly with empty tears in my eyes, struggling from broken roads, Landslides, don't know what to do, no internet, no electricity, Phones are not working properly even in Kathmandu, met my lovely kids and wife sleeping in open field.

"They cried when they saw me but I had no tears left.

"Kathmandu where we live is o.k.

"Mind is not working properly too.

"Tired of taking out the dead bodies from the broken houses, manage dead bodies, rescuing injured by helicopter and providing the roof plastic toppling as we have, Lost everything in my region, 95 % of all the remote poor area's houses made of mud and stone plus wood are collapsed.

"No water, No electricity no food no roof, it is very hard to save the survived one and treat injured, 10 to 15% of population from area must have been lost.

"Don't know how to rebuild the villages, I also lost my beloved father who brought me to this stage of life from among 2000 people in the recent period.

"Lost many relatives, friends, well wishers, The biggest natural disaster that have seen by my generation occurred 25th April 2025 12 noon Nepal time is one of the worst day for me in my life.

"Luckily me and two of my other friends survived in 3 seconds, were just about to participate in school program in the area.

"I had no camera to post some terrible seen."