I am very fortunate to have my health, and to have found my perfect job at Southampton Hospital Charity. I’ve worked for the NHS for nine years now, and despite many of my friends for years thinking that I was a nurse in the NHS (I’ve never been in a medical role!) at Southampton I do the marketing and communications, helping to spread the word and good work of the charity.

Text SHRA47 £donation amount to 70070 eg SHRA47 £10 to 70070.

While last year I went to Morocco, we never went to the Sahara Desert, which is why I jumped at the chance to take part in the trek for Southampton Hospital Charity with our other seven trekkers.

I am looking forward to experiencing the vast dry landscape as we climb over sand dunes, past small desert villages and over dried up river beds. The cherry on the cake is that at the end of the trip we will spend two days at a community project in Marrakesh, helping to make a real difference for the local people.

I know that I have a lot of training to do to get myself fit for the challenge, and to make things easier for when I am facing temperatures of 40’C during the day, and 0’C at night.

Everyday I see the difference that that hospitals and charity make to the lives of our current and future patients, and I am proud to be doing something to help.

Text SHRA47 £donation amount to 70070 eg SHRA47 £10 to 70070.

For those who have never heard of Southampton Hospital Charity, we enhance the facilities in Southampton General Hospital (one of the twelfth largest acute hospitals in the UK) and Princess Anne maternity Hospital. These provide services to 1.3 million people living in Southampton and South Hampshire plus specialist services including neurosciences, cardiac services and children’s intensive care to more than three million people in central southern England and the Channel Islands.

Providing these services costs £1.6 million per day, which is why the charity is so important.

Donations allow the hospitals to buy equipment, fund research and provide better facilities that would otherwise be unaffordable under the NHS. With your help, the charity funds projects large and small across all wards and departments to improve patient care.

I will be focusing my fundraising efforts on a project, however this will be added at a later date.

We are the NHS at its best, and your support can make a real difference - thank you.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.