Amanda reunited with family after Nepal earthquake

Alternative therapist Amanda Ferrie (45) was in her bedroom on the monastery grounds when the earthquake, which measured a massive 7.8 on the Richter scale, hit on Saturday, April 25.

Amanda, who only arrived at the monastery, which is a 35 minute helicopter ride from the capital Kathmandu, the previous day said: “We were in the temple on the Saturday morning and I don’t know why but I stood up and said that I needed to get out of there and went to my room.

“The next thing I knew the whole building was shaking; it felt like it went on for hours.

“The monastery is on a plateau so there were avalanches and landslips happening at the same time.

“There were over 100 monks and nuns and around 40 children there and it is a miracle that no-one there was injured.”

For the next five days Amanda and the rest of her 12-strong team, made up of eight British and four Americans, were stranded in the mountains with no way of contacting her family back home in Carluke.

Eventually she managed to get through and deliver the good news that she was safe to her family, including mum Margaret and sons Daniel (17), Shea (9) and five-year-old Arran.

“I managed to speak to my mum on the Wednesday,” said Amanda. “She had been looking after the kids and they must have been very worried with the death toll rising.

“We couldn’t get hold of the British Embassy; it was just ringing out. Eventually a helicopter came but because it had been given to the Americans it took the four Americans out but left us.”

Amanda’s trip home was all the more poignant with this week’s second earthquake which left thousands more dead.