Each and every day that I spend in my role as a Community Fundraiser for Marie Curie I have the privilege and honour to see first-hand the care and support that the Hospice and Community staff offer our patients and their families.  Everyone is treated with upmost compassion, dignity, love and kindness at a time when it is needed most.

I am so blessed to be able to work with an incredible number of hugely inspirational volunteers and supporters who tirelessly give up theirtime and energy to help fund the work we do; we need to ensure that no-one dies without the care they need, at a time when it’s most needed. 

Any hardship, discomfort and pain I will experience on this challenge is not even vaguely comparable to anything some of our families have been through, but I want to be able to make some difference and to give back to a cause that has given so much to me.

The Challenge:

Twelve relative strangers will set off for Northern Sweden to be met by three ex-army guides and the challenge will begin! It’s going to be both physically and emotionally challenging; remote, freezing cold, with few home comforts. Three nights in a cabin in the wilderness with no electricity or running water, outside long drop loos and a shower hut, where we will need to boil the water from melted snow… It’s going to be wet wipes for the entire duration! It’s also our job to keep the fires going and as I’m not a fan of the cold and with temperatures likely to be between 0ºC to minus 30ºC I’ll be all over this!

Cross country skiing through the forest – hard work! Pair up on snowmobiles crossing frozen lakes, covering approximately 40kms – anyone who knows me will appreciate I truly am ‘Driving Miss Daisy’, and this gives me the absolute fear! We will learn to fire build in the snow and keep it going, do all the cooking both in the cabin and outside on campfires, ice fish through holes bored in the icy lake – let’s hope I can catch my tea! And spend our evenings constructing our snow hole.

Survival Phase:

Day four: Cooking and eating over the next few days will be by campfire in the snow. Spending the night in a communal traditionalScandinavian tent (see pic!) and we'll have a buddy system throughout the night to keep the fire going. Day five: Build a shelter constructed from natural resources where we will spend the night, again keeping the fire going. Day six: Finish our 6-foot snow hole, tunneling with ice axes and spades, see pic below this is where we will sleep!

It's going to be a real challenge and I really appreciate all the support you can give xxx