Wendy Fleming off hiking to raise funds for Action Cancer
IN A bid to raise much needed funds for Action Cancer one Enniskillen woman is going the extra mile, or 6344 to be exact. Wendy Fleming, from Garvary, will be leaving her GHDs behind and setting off for the rough terrain of Vietnam in October as part of a 20 strong group expedition. She will walk around 25 kms a day across North Vietnam and will be away from October 24 until November 3.
Ahead of her excursion Wendy must raise £3,400,with all proceeds going to the cancer charity’s work in Northern Ireland.
Wendy originally admitted that she wanted to do the group’s expedition to the Great Wall of China, but due to the timeframe it was not possible.
“It is not until the following year and my daughter is getting married next year so I’ve been informed I’m not allowed to leave next year.”
After first seeing the advert in the paper, Wendy decided to read up before finally registering to take part. Although a daunting prospect she needs little motivation.
“ I lost my mother-in-law to cancer in the summer and I’ve also lost my own mother to it. I also have a number of friends who are survivors.
“Cancer patients are so brave with what they go through, compared to that what I’m going to be doing is a walk in the park. For those suffering there is no such thing as feeling sorry for themselves, there is so much acceptance of it.
“I just thought that I would like to raise money for it. It is a personal goal.”
‘Apprehensive’ and ‘excited’ are just some of the words Wendy uses to describe her upcoming trip, with the difficult sleeping arrangements in particular a slight cause for concern.
“I’ve been watching a lot of cookery programmes and I must admit the food might worry me, but I think it’s seeing things like rats when you’re trying to sleep because we will be sleeping rough on the ground at times. I shouldn’t have watched ‘I’m a celebrity’! And of course life without GHDs may not be much fun either.”
In preparation for her trek training has begun for Wendy, with cardio and a lot of walking the order of the day.
“There’s no point in us going over there and not being able to do it. The biggest problem will be the humidity, you’re talking about 70% humidity and temperatures between 22 and 29 degrees and then you have the problems of mosquitos and everything else. You also have to carry your day sack which includes three litres of water, which is quite heavy so you really have to build your fitness up.
“It looks absolutely amazing though, I am going to see parts of Vietnam tourists wouldn’t normally see.”
Wendy has just started fundraising and over the coming months will be organising various events including bag packing and a table quiz.
“At the end of it I won’t have any friends left because I’m calling in so many favours,” she added.
If you would like to donate to Wendy you can visit her JustGiving website at www.justgiving.com/wendy-fleming1.
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