A MAN who left Nepal a week before Saturday’s earthquake has raised nearly £8,000 for the friends he left behind.

John May, who was in Nepal earlier this month on a Duke of Edinburgh trek, fought back the tears as he completed the London Marathon last weekend for Oxfam.

Mr May had originally intended to run the marathon for fun, but changed his mind when Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake left almost 4,000 dead and thousands more injured.

He said: “During the race my brain played a slideshow of images of prayer flags, the friends I had made just a few days before, people’s houses in Khunde and Khumjung, the monasteries and the little dry stone walls.

“Those thoughts made me cry but they also kept me running.”

The Duke of Edinburgh international award secretary general has since found out his friends and colleagues in Nepal are all safe and well.

His sponsorship target of £500 for Oxfam was quickly passed as more than 150 people donated, including an anonymous donation of £5,000.

Most of the money came from friends through Facebook, whom Mr May had met over the course of his work across the world.

He said: “All I did was give people the opportunity to make a personal link with what has happened very far away.

“The real heroes are those who have pledged £10 or £20 here and there – they showed incredible generosity.”

During his time in the country, Mr May was accompanying a group of New Zealand teenagers through the Everest valley and travelled through areas that were later badly hit, such as Khumjung and Kathmandu.

Along with the teenagers, Mr May left Nepal on Saturday, April 18, just seven days before disaster struck. He was back home when he heard the news.

The Weston-on-the-Green resident said: “My first feeling was one of immense sadness for the people we had met and became friends with.

“Seventy per cent of houses in Khunde and Khumjung the villages we worked in and communities we stayed in have been destroyed.

“The people live very simply – it’s one of the poorest parts of the world.

“In my mind’s eye, I can walk through the villages and picture the houses. To think what’s happened is devastating.”

Oxfam has already provided water and pit toilets to survivors living in two open-air camps in the Kathmandu Valley.

Four travellers from Oxfordshire contacted their families to let them know they were safe and well.

To donate to Oxfam and John’s page go to justgiving.com/johnccmay2015/