HERE’S Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes in digits:

72- his age, 18- the amount in millions he has raised so far for good causes, 2- the number of heart attacks he’s suffered, 122- the blistering temperature in degrees he ran the ‘toughest footrace on Earth’ and 4 - the number of mountains he intends to scale over the next nine months order to set a new world record for charity.

While on the subject of digits, the beloved British explorer and author famously once lopped off the tips of five his own frostbitten fingers in order to save on the £6,000 amputation bill (after popping into the village store to buy the blades himself). That takes guts, but more on that later.

Never has the title ‘the world’s greatest living adventurer’ been more deserved. But what also takes guts is taking the news “you have terminal cancer’ on the chin and deciding to squeeze every last drop of happiness out of life once that hammer blow has struck. Mark Hughes, 54, from Southend, has done just that. The lives of both men have become interlinked thanks to the charity Marie Curie which they are both supporting in their own different ways.

Mark is doing his bit through volunteering at the Marie Curie charity shop in Shoebury despite living with incurable bone cancer and Sir Ranulph? Well while most people his age are slowing down, he is on a mission to become the first person to have crossed both polar ice caps and climbed the highest mountain on every continent on the planet.

‘The Global Reach Challenge’ in aid of Marie Curie will be the culmination of a lifetime of exploration and death-defying challenges for Sir Ranulph.

Marie Curie has been a cause close to his heart since his first wife Ginny died of cancer in 2004. Since then he has raised millions for the charity through climbing Mount Everest- which took three attempts and almost killed him, scaling the north face of the Eiger (while looking up all the way as he suffers from vertigo) and last year running the Marathon Des Sables, a six day ultra-endurance race through the Sahara, a feat he described as “more hellish than hell”.

“I feel compelled to keep setting myself these challenges to raise money for Marie Curie,” explained Sir Ranulph. “Since the death of my first wife Ginny who died surrounded by her family, I’ve wanted to raise money to help Marie Curie Nurses care for people living with any terminal illness, and their families.

“It’s not until cancer happens to you and your family that you realise just how needed and valuable charities such as Marie Curie are.”

Sir Ranulph, a former member of the SAS and youngest ever captain of the British Army, has already reached the North and South Poles by crossing the Antarctic continent and the Arctic Ocean in 1982 so that box is ticked. He climbed Everest in 2009 and Kilimanjaro in Africa in 2004 so that’s another two off the list. Last week he returned from scaling the highest mountain in Europe- Elbrus in Russia, so that leaves five more of the world’s highest mountains for him to conquer by May 2017 -Mount Carstensz in Australasia, Mount Vinson in Antarctic, Mount Aconcagua in South America and Denali in North America.

Summiting Elbrus in Russia wasn’t without his challenges and painful moments but the adventurer and author- who has written more than 20 fiction and non-fiction books- made it to the top of the 18,510 ft mountain without any big dramas. That’s a far cry from his second Everest attempt when he had turn back 400 metres from the summit with breathing problems that made him feel like “there was an elephant laying on my chest”.

Unfortunately what should have been a triumphant return to the UK from Elbrus was marred by some over -zealous Russian airport officials.

“It was a complete saga, my young daughter somehow managed to cut a tiny small square off the bottom of my passport, literally the size of a fingernail,” he explained. “I didn’t even think about it as I had no problems going out to Russia for the climb but on the way home I was detained for hours by security officials and stuck in a room being questioned just because of this tiny missing piece. I’ve never been treated so badly it was absolutely appalling.”

Renowned for his placid persona clearly this Russian encounter irked Sir Ranulph. “I even missed my son’s graduation because of it, by the time I was finally allowed to get on a plane it was too late,” he said.

After finally reaching Everest in 2009, at the time becoming the oldest Briton to do so and raising £6.2 million for Marie Curie in the process, Sir Ranulph intimated he would be putting his crampons to the side and leaving climbing to the professionals. But then the opportunity to set a new world record and raise hopefully millions for Marie Curie came up and he just couldn’t turn it down.

“Climbing five mountains in a short space of time is going to be a definite challenge, especially climbing Denali in Alaska which only has an 18 per cent success rate during this year’s season. But if it raises money for Marie Curie then I would really like to have a go,” he said.

The Alaskan mountain has claimed more than 100 lives and in parts is permanently covered with snow and glaciers, some more than 30 miles. Even worse the mountain’s extreme temperature, which can hit minus 75 degrees Fahrenheit can freeze a human being in a second.

Sir Ranulph will face all this without even being able to hold a standard ice axe properly, having lost half of each of the fingers and thumb on his left hand to frostbite during a previous expedition. He’s also had two heart attacks, a double heart bypass, a cancer operation, has diabetes and has to cope with Cheyne–Stokes, a condition which debilitates his breathing above 16,000 feet.

So with all that in mind, why does he continue to push himself to the limit? He’s openly admitted in the past he’s not out to take stupid risks but clearly the draw of the thrill for a good cause, is strong. “I do it because I get irritated that it’s so much more difficult for me now. I have to train so much harder than 30 and even 20 years ago.

“I hate it that I go for a jog in Hyde Park and someone clearly unfit just waddles past me. What used to be a sprint has become a shuffle for me. But that’s why I do it, it frustrates me so much that I have to beat it.”

Reading the former Etonian student’s entire CV would take days. The endurance records, the honours, medals, adventures and charity treks over the past 40 years are too numerous to mention. Perhaps the best known of his capers was a three-year transglobe expedition which saw he and friend Charles Burton become the first people to successfully circumnavigate the world on its polar axis. Travelling solely sea and land, this feat, which they accomplished in 1982, has never been repeated,

He has also travelled to the North Pole unaided, along with long term expedition partner Dr Mike Stroud and trekked 97-days across the Antarctica. In 2003 he and Stroud ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents just four months after Sir Ranulph had undergone a triple heart bypass. The “Where Soldiers Fear to Tread” author also led a hovercraft expedition up the White Nile, discovered Ptolemy's Atlantis of the Sands in the deserts of Oman and plenty more.

Many of his adventures over the years have been made possible by the generous sponsorship of his long-term benefactor and friend Paul Sykes and corporate sponsor TMF Group. “Paul has been just brilliant in supporting me over all these years, so much of what I’ve done I couldn’t have done without his support,” said Sir Ranulph. Another supporter of his is the award-winning actor Ralph Fiennes, whose father Mark is sir Ranulph’s third cousin. “He’s always been extremely generous in supporting my charity expeditions,” he said.

I wonder if he constantly gets asked if he’s Ralph’s father? “Yes all the time,” he quipped. “All the time.”

Sir Ranulph does not worship at the cult of celebrity. He admits he doesn’t like to be recognised, especially when just out with his wife and family enjoying dinner and says he’ll never be found on a reality show: “If you get asked to go into the jungle and eat insects or that sort of thing you just politely turn it down,” he jokes. However he does admit that his line of work can be a catch 22 situation

“What I do more than anything these days is write books and writing is absolutely so competitive so as an author you need your name to be recognised.”

Accompanying Sir Ranulph on his most recent mountaineering challenge up Mt Elbrus, was a letter written by Mark Hughes, along with a photograph of the 54-year-old from Southend.

“Mark in a wonderful bloke and a fantastic example to us all,” he said. “We’re all on our way out really aren’t we and it’s what we do with the time we’ve got that matters. It was an honour for me to take his letter to the summit.”

Mark was given his terminal diagnosis in 2010, although he had been battling cancer for a decade before that. Originally it began with a tumour the size of a golf ball in his kidney but has now spread to bone cancer. Nevertheless Mark is determined to keep living life to the full. He had to give up full time work as a long distance lorry driver but enjoys volunteering at the Marie Curie shop saying he wants to give something back to the charity which has made all the difference to his life.

Mark is a strong advocate of being open and honest and has accepted his diagnosis. His ethos is: “You’ve got to look on the bright side. “ I firmly believe that if you are down and feel sorry for yourself you feel worse,” he said.

“If you are happy and upbeat and carry on to the best of your ability then you are fighting the disease and if you are not doing that you are letting the disease win.

“If you hide away and tip-toe around things, you’re making it awkward for yourself and the person who has the terminal illness.”

It may sound macabre but Mark has already planned his own funeral and made plans for his body to be donated to medical science. “I like gardening so I’m going to be cremated and my ashes spread in the garden. Then I can help the flowers,” he explained.

“On my doctor’s sheet I have said to him that the bits that can be used, feel free to use for medical research or whatever. So once it does happen, I’ll at least be helping someone else.”

Mark and beloved wife Jane will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary next year and Mark intends to be around for the party. “I’m focusing on our anniversary at the moment. What keeps me going is actually annoying my wife,” he laughed.

“That’s the medicine, every day it is my main mission to get up and annoy her in the best way I can. It keeps us both going. My main concern is her and my friends and family so all I want is for them to be ok.”

When Sir Ranulph treks up the remaining four mountains one heavy step at a time, he will carry more letters from inspirational people like Mark. The challenge in front of him would be nigh on impossible for someone half his age but if Sir Ranulph has demonstrated anything, it’s that he has true grit.

In 2000 when he was attempting to walk solo and unsupported to the North Pole his sleds fell through ice. As he pulled them out he sustained severe frostbite to the tips of all the fingers on his left hand. On returning home and after being told by surgeons he’s have to wait several months to have the dying and painful fingertips amputated he took matters into his own hands.

"I purchased a set of fretsaw blades at the village shop, put the little finger in my Black & Decker folding table's vice, and gently sawed through the dead skin and bone just above the live skin line," he confessed.

Suffice to say after two hours of DIY surgery it was job done. In the same sense as Sir Ranulph flips frustration into a source of motivation, Mark does the same with his zest for life.

Mark added: “In the letter I wrote to Sir Ranulph which he took to the top of Elbrus I wrote that part of me would be up there on the mountain with him. It was true, I was. It was a real honour to have him carry my letter. He’s doing this for me, for you for everyone who Marie Curie has and will help in the future.

“I have no doubt he will accomplish the global reach challenge and I’ll be proud to shake his hand when he does.”

*To sponsor Sir Ranulph’s challenge visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ranulph

side box-

The seven summits stats.. the mountains Sir Ranulph will have conquered at the end of the challenge

Everest (29,035 feet) – Nepal, Asia.

Aconcagua (22,834 feet) – Argentina, South America.

Denali (20,310 feet) – Alaska, North America.

Kilimanjaro (19,339 feet) – Tanzania, Africa.

Elbrus (18,510 feet) - Russia

Vinson (16,067 feet) – Antarctica.

Carstensz (16,023 feet)- West Papua, Indonesia/ Australasia