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On 222nd March 2021 I will spend 4 days trekking through Jordan from the Dead Sea to the famous lost city of Petra through mountainous and desert terrain, using ancient trails and camping out under the stars each night. I will be joining Arsenal Football Club and World Cup legends David Seaman and Per Mertesacker and 99 other Arsenal supporters from around the world on this trek to raise money for The Arsenal Foundation's ground-breaking Coaching for Life programme.

I may even get the chance to roll some of my kit up into a football, mark out a penalty box and goal in the desert sand, do a mazy trundling dribble past a German World Cup winning defender, and smash the ball past one of England’s and Arsenal’s greatest goalkeepers. We can all dream. 

As many of you know I am a lifelong Arsenal fan and this is now my opportunity to show my support, for Arsenal and The Arsenal Foundation in a very practical way.  The Arsenal Foundation uses the power of football and the Arsenal name to support, inspire and empower under-privileged young people in North London and across the globe in partnership with Save The Children. They have co-developed the innovative Coaching For Life programme which utilises football to improve the mental well being of children affected by conflict and violence. That has to be good, whether or not you are an Arsenal fan.

I thought it would be a great and possible life changing experience. So I have been really lucky to be chosen to be part of this challenge. I will be pushing myself out of my comfort zone in this climate which will get very hot whilst hiking 8 to 10 hours for 4 days and it gets very cold in the desert at night. The kit list even says I have to take matches to burn my own toilet paper - I guess that means I need to get used to digging holes! So I am apprehensive about doing this, but very excited about the challenge ahead and to raise money for such a great cause. I would appreciate any donation large or small to encourage me with my training so that those demons that are telling me that I am mad to attempt this don't win, and hopefully smash my personal target of £1,000 which I have pledged to raise as part of the overall target of £100,000 for the group.

I really hope that you can participate through giving, and also you can follow this page for updates below on my training in preparing for the trek and from the trip itself.

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Due to the escalation of COVID-19, The Arsenal Foundation were forced to postpone the challenge to 22-27 March 2021. The silver lining is that we now have an additional 12 months to raise funds to support the mental well-being of children around the world (and an additional 12 months of training!).