Jane recently received a request from a niece to sponsor her on one of those package holidays to an exotic location to do something vaguely adventurous "for charity"

I thought her reply was absolutely spot-on; here it is:

Dear xxxxx

Thank you for your email. Its great to hear that you want to do something to help people in the poor countries of the world. I would be delighted to bung you a few quid  if you just give me the right answer to this question - how are you getting there? Not flying I hope. If the answer is no - hurrah, you've got your money and can skip to the end of this email. If the answer is yes please could you give me a few moments of your time and read on.

I'm sure you are aware that taking a long-haul flight is one of the most environmentally damaging and destructive acts you can commit and the impacts will be felt most severely and soonest by the poor people of the world. By travelling this unsustainably you will not be helping poor people, you will be contributing towards making their plight even worse. And I'm afraid there's more to this. As a student economist you will know that western societies consume way way more than their fair share of the world's resources and by flying unnecessarily you will be wasting scarce and valuable resourses that poor people desperately need.

You say (I think in jest) on your 'justgiving' webpage that this is an "ill thought out plan" but I'm afraid that is exactly what it is, if flying is involved. I hope however that you will be writing back to tell me that my worries are ill-founded and your group will be travelling relatively sustainably by train. Better still you could all decide to go to Mont Blanc or the Cairngorms instead, because, although they do not sound as glamorous, they arejust as beautiful, relatively accessible by train and have no leeches as far as I know.I'm sure you would have just as much fun and not at the expense of the people you want to help.

Sorry that this is not the answer you wanted. I'd be delighted to sponser you not to fly to Nepal, or anywhere else for that matter. Perhaps this would actually be more of a challenge!

Love

Aunty Jane

let this be a warning to any daughters, nephews, nieces, or others thinking of trying to tap me for money "for charity" in order to fund an exotic holiday - you'll get the same reply.