West Sussex woman plans to trek across the Sahara desert in aid of St Catherine’s Hospice

Mandy Tyrell decided to take on this challenge in memory of her friends who sadly passed away and used the hospice for care.

Mandy Tyrell and her boyfriend Brian Jones met whilst fundraising and signed up for the trek in Oct 2021. The trek was supposed to happen in 2020 but due to covid was delayed.

In preparation for the event, the couple have been walking most weekends for about five to ten miles with backpacks and poles at various places locally.

Miss Tyrell said: “We travel by bus for about nine hours from Marrakech for the start. Over the next five days we will try to cover around 100km. The Berbers will be our guides and their camels will carry our tents and clothes.

“We carry out food for the trip and our water allocation is around 3 litres a day. Each night we will camp up and eat by the fire, food is cooked over the fire by the Berbers. If it's not too cold we can sleep under the stars. The temperature in April is usually between 30 and 50 degrees and drops to zero at night.

“The trek will take us over sand dunes, along dried river beds and through villages.

“Being Scottish, my main concern is the heat! I'm not a fan and normally stay out of the sun. I'm not ginger but still not a fan.

“We all have to raise a minimum of £2020 for the Hospice. The first half goes to the original Hospice, but the rest goes to the new hospice being built at Pease Pottage.

“Currently St Catherine’s Hospice can only help a third of patients who contact them. They desperately want to help more. The new hospice will help so many other people in the future.”

See more: New Crawley road could be named after much-loved councillor, Your chance to win a unique piece of artwork made renowned mosaic artist who has made David Beckham from thousands of pennies, Crawley bowling alley partner up with the children’s magazine Beano this EasterYou can help with the fundraising by clicking the link and donating: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mandy-tyrrell5?utm_source=Sharethis&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=mandy-tyrrell5&utm_campaign=pfp-email&utm_term=7e6a9789a1b0440782a1e70889395499