Thanks I did it!

Just occasionally you have a genuine “once in a lifetime experience”. My taking part in the MS Trust Sahara trek  was definitely in that league.  For me personally it was a challenge to beat the incipient “middle-age” doldrums, get fit, get off my backside and do something!

I didn’t think that I had trained that hard but it turned out that walking to work in the early morning or back late at night, particularly in the snow proved to be along the right lines. A bit of grit and determination was the main requirement for the challenge – and well worn in boots.

We walked 100km in 5 days over varied terrain. Yes there were big dunes with fine liquid sand and undulating rocky desert. There were low dunes with a biting wind whipping up the dust in our faces and huge flat plains where the sun beat down at 40 degrees and the horizon blended with the mirages.

We slept in tents or some of the folks slept out doors under the stars, which were unbelievable in the desert sky. There was no water to wash, but we drank mint tea and ate well, care of our Berber guides who basically did all the gritty stuff like tents and latrines. And the camels carried our bags for which we were very grateful.

We had two sand storms, and some tents blew away. We could hardly see more than 30 metres but bizarrely the moon still shone down from above! Afterwards 2 scorpions decided to take up residence in one of the tents producing a brief outbreak of mild hysteria amongst the campers.

The desert is beautiful – spacious beyond belief and full of curious examples of ingenious survival. Scarab beetles, armour plated, surry across baked sand to clear up any debris they can find. Lizards live on bare rock in awesome heat and trees stand in splendid isolation casting shade whilst somehow clinging on to life.

Perhaps most interesting however were the people, thirty of us in all, walking for various charities. All on a mission of one sort or another, and each with their own fascinating stories. Rather like the travellers in Chaucer’s tales we entertained ourselves with the everyday stuff of our lives which curiously mixed the mundane with the exceptional and leads people to end up walking through a desert a long way from home!

And yes, I raised £4370 for the MS Trust. Thank you!

I also have to say a massive “thank you” for all the support and encouragement from friends, colleagues,  patients and families. Knowing just how comitted everyone had been was a real lift and made the challenge that much easier.

Lastly, it was a privilege to walk in support of all the brave people I have worked with over the years with MS. Practising medicine to the highest possible standard and delivering good care is something we hopefully all aspire to do in our clinical practice in health care. Taking a walk across the desert reminded me that real people, have real diseases and deal with difficult issues on a daily basis which for the most part we do not see or cannot understand.

Would I do it again? Definitely yes! I recommend it, especially for 40-something consultants getting bogged down in NHS politics! Go take a walk!

Thanks,

Steve Sturmanteve