A FIVE-year strategy meeting is easily cast into perspective when you have friends and family living in tents across a mountain range ravaged by death and destruction.

Sharna King was in such a meeting with her colleagues at Nationwide when the human resources manager found her mind wandering more than 4,500 miles away.

The 39-year-old was about to attempt her fourth Himalayan summit in three years when April 25’s earthquake decimated Nepal.

As a keen climber, Sharna, of Meadow Road in Rodbourne, found her way to the Asian nation in 2012, where hikes turned into climbs and mountain guides became friends.

She had flown into Kathmandu on the night of Thursday, April 23 and went on to the mountain airport in Lukla before hiking to Namche, a village.

Walking with a guide and female Australian companion, the trio first experienced the earthquake when a landslide hit the mountains around, triggering major rock falls.

“We turned on our heels to run away, but I couldn’t follow him,” she said.

“I couldn’t. The ground was moving. All I was focused on was the landslide. I couldn’t get myself together to run after my guide.”

Little communication and poor internet coverage in this rural domain hid the true extent of the devastation which had engulfed the country.

That was until they came across bloodied families, staggering down the valley, seeking shelter and sanctuary from the higher ground.

“We were up in the mountains with no communication and at that point I realised I hadn’t spoken to my mum,” said Sharna.

“She must have been worried to death and I was just trying to get hold of my mum, but I couldn’t get hold of anybody.”

The plan of action was a conundrum for Sharna. She was two days from the nearest airport and five days from the nearest road.

There was no estimate on how long the aftershocks would continue, or how serious they would be. And she knew it would be bedlam, the closer she got to the airport.

She stayed put and remained out of trouble, but for the crumpling buildings and ruthless stampedes for safety in the dead of night at the lodges she stayed in.

“It was awful when I think back. It was just a case of getting outside as quickly as possible. We waited outside for a couple of hours debating whether we go back,” she said.

“Buildings out there are like houses of cards, so we were running out the building with everything shaking and everybody clambering over each other.”

And when she eventually reached her parents: “It was awful. They were so emotional. She (her mum) honestly thought I was dead, the drama queen that she is,” she said.

Sharna avoided serious injury and returned home more than one week ago, but the guilt weighing heavy on her shoulders has launched a fundraising drive to help two rural villages she knows well.

“I feel incredibly guilty for being home, safe, when a lot of my Nepalese friends are living in tents with their homes destroyed,” she said.

“I should be back there, helping. I just feel overwhelmed. I was sitting in a meeting the other day discussing a five-year strategy and I just thought ‘I’m not interested in this.’ “When you’re over there you live in survival mode.”

Sharna’s appeal, which can be found at: www.gofundme.com/nepalgorkharelief, will provide aid for families in the Gorkha villages of Bungkot and Masel Devisthan.

“The devastation in these villages is horrendous. Houses have been destroyed and about 80 per cent live in tented accommodation,” she said.

To donate to Oxfam’s appeal to help the people in Nepal affected by the earthquake, log on to www.oxfam.org.uk/nepal_appeal.