Kathmandu, October 28:

A cancer awareness group and an international team of musicians returned from the Mount Everest area after performing what they said was the world’s highest concert on land and raising an estimated $2.5 lakh for a hospital.

The “Everest Rock” concert organised by the US-based Love Hope Strength Foundation was held October 21 at 5,650 metres in the foothills of the world’s highest mountain. The group returned from the area yesterday.

Six musicians from the US and Britain — cancer survivor Mike Peters of the British band The Alarm, Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats, Cy Curnin and Jamie West of the Fixx, Glen Tillbrook of the Squeeze and Nick Harper — performed at the concert.

“The foundation got a strong message across. By going to Everest it gave us a loud voice to show people that cancer is not a death sentence like it was,” Peters, from North Wales, said in Kathmandu today. “It was a good day for the human race,” Peters said. “There is a lot of tragedy in the world and we were trying to do something positive.” The group members trekked to their performance site. Seven were cancer survivors.