A Gurkha veteran who has helped to raise more than £6,000 for two charities held an event in Brecon to help continue his fundraising.

Brecon grandfather Mahadev Thapa has raised an incredible total of £6,144 for Sunrise Primary School in Yangchok, Nepal, as well as the Wales Air Ambulance Charity

Mahadev, who works for Powys County Council as a groundsman, held the event at the Guildhall, with the permission of the Mayor of Brecon Councillor John Powell, to aid his fundraising efforts for both causes.

The evening hosted by Mahadev, more commonly known as Dibby consisted of a delicious Nepali meal provided by The Gurkha Corner followed by traditional entertainment, a raffle and an auction.

Mahadev famously summited Pen y Fan 60 times in 45 days earlier this year to raise money for his 60th birthday in September.

A street collection also took place and an online donation platform was set up.

The recent event at the Guildhall raised a total of £1,828.50 towards the final sum.

A Brecon Town Council spokesperson thanked Cllr Ann Mathias, mayor Cllr John Powell and town clerk Fiona Williams for arranging the evening.

The spokesperson also said: “Special thanks also go to Mr Crad Lowe for hosting the evening, the volunteers who helped serve the food and drinks, the volunteer stewards and the entertainer.

“A very big thank you / dherai dhanyabad Mahadev.”

Back in September, the grandfather-of-two said he had picked the Wales Air Ambulance Charity following an experience he had in 2012 where a woman broke her ankle on the Pen y Fan.

He said: “It was in 2012 and I was doing the WAAT4 Challenge. I was at a check point at the top of Pen y Fan and this lady went down and broke her ankle.

“The paramedic called an ambulance, it was only a small red air ambulance and it wasn’t able to land so it went back and they sent the big yellow air ambulance.

“It had to wait on the second peak for the wind to clear before it came to pick her up.

“I just want to raise enough money for the Wales Air Ambulance to save at least one person’s life. Not too much money but enough to save one life.”

Mahadev has lived in Brecon since 2007 with his family after he moved to Brecon following a 15 year career with the Brigade of Gurkhas, serving as a Queen’s Gurkha Royal Engineer and then in the Brunei Government’s Gurkha Reserve Unit - his family boasts four generations of Gurkhas including his son who is currently serving.

The Powys County Council highway and groundsman is based at Brecon cemetery - he said that he digs graves, cuts the grass and the trees, and generally helps to maintain the cemetery.

He has worked for Powys council since 2008 and has taken the lead in looking after the Brecon cemetery and its surrounding area.

He spent his own time to create flower beds around the chapel within the grounds and during the Covid-19 pandemic he maintained the Gurkha path along the river Usk making sure the overgrowth was cut back and the wooden bridge and step structures were repaired after flooding.

The community stalwart is also fundraising for Sunrise Primary School which was founded by his grandfather in 1955 after he left the Gurkha Army.

Mahadev and his family have been supporting the school ever since, however in September he said it was in danger of being closed by authorities in Nepal which would mean that local schoolchildren would have to travel for miles by foot to receive their education.

He told The Brecon & Radnor Express at the time: “The other one I’m fundraising for is the school. I’m just trying to make some funds for the school because the Government wants to close it down. Originally they stopped sending children there.

“Now we have children but not enough teachers - there is one nursery teacher and one junior teacher.”

Mahadev was hoping raise money to help gain and retain teachers and well as to purchase supplies for the school including IT equipment - he explained that any left over money raised on top of what he needs to raise will be used throughout the year for the Nepalese primary school.