TheNew Forestwas wet, wet, wet, and consequently I and the four other ‘survivors’ were also decidedly damp (understatement).

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First day after we had our entire kit emptied out and checked for ‘contraband’ (basically anything edible - they even felt waistbands of trousers and the linings of our bags) we spent the day constructing our shelter in POURING rain - the guys running the course (ex-Royal Marines) realised they would have to give us a tarpaulin to cover our shelter as no amount of ‘thatching’ would withstand the torrential rain. Even our waterproofs sometimes couldn’t stand the test of rain - so in any breaks we would stand around the fire to dry off and would be ‘steaming’ in no time.

Our shelter built, and lined with fern leaves for comfort (a lean-to constructed in between several trees, using the trunks as uprights), we had to set about making a fire - not easy with sodden wood - we were shown the excellent properties of birch bark and managed to get a fire going with a stash of old pallets we found, which burned well but far to quick, and had to search for biggish logs to keep the fire alight all night to give us some heat in our shelter.

We then dug our latrine, which two of the other girls made a fantastic job of, we even had a sort of water-ski handle on some string from a tree to hold onto so we didn’t fall backwards into the hole - all mod cons - we had a carrier bag with our loo paper in and even some broken bits of fence we found as foot-plates. There was no privacy mind, so an announcement had to be made to everyone if we were ‘going’ to make sure no one was interrupted! It became known as ‘going to the holly bush’.

Evening meal was a dead rabbit each (we were prohibited from killing animals on the land we were on so had some one of the leaders had shot the day before on his land). We were shown how to skin them, finish the gutting and were given a small potato & a carrot each, and one swede between us, to make our meal. We made a rabbit stew half of which we ate and half we saved for the next day.

We slept OK in our rather cramped shelter, but discovered many leaks in the tarp, but thanks to my bivvy bag I stayed dry - the others without bivvies weren’t so lucky, and woke up in wet sleeping bags.

Breakfast on day two was wax worms followed by meal worms and crickets. They were OK; it’s really not as bad as you think eating maggoty-like creatures. The meal worms and crickets we ‘popped’ pop-corn style in a hot pan first - the meal worms were a bit like un-flavoured Twiglets, and the crickets; just crunchy. The wax worms we ate still wriggling. Later on we re-heated our rabbit stew leftovers and devoured them.

We spent the afternoon learning about lots of different fire-lighting techniques, and spent a lot of time wood collecting to keep our very hungry fire going. We were taught about the importance of hygiene and how to make a water purification system from sphagnum moss, charcoal, and sand, and then to boil the water afterwards. We also made a find of an old, but useful axe during one of our wood-finding forays.

Evening meal was a dead pigeon a piece, which were slightly gross to deal with as blue-bottles kept on appearing from their nether regions as we attempted to skin them enough to take the breast meat off them. We had the pigeon breasts fried with an onion and boiled our potatoes & carrots up. It was surprisingly tasty too, and was a bit like liver and onions, but the breasts were small and the way we cooked them meant no left-overs for breakfast.

Night two was drier and everyone was reasonably dry in the morning. We also got an unexpected gift of a bag of rice and a few coconuts to make breakfast with, so made a sort of coco-nutty boiled rice, which was deadly boring but it was food, the coconut flesh we nibbled on during the day. We saved half the rice and ended up being glad we did.

We had a plant walk - to learn about how to find edible plants and what we could do with them, and were shown how to navigate with compasses and follow bearings to reach set points. We were tested on this later at night in the dark in the forest having to navigate with our maps and compasses between several points a few hundred metres apart.

At the end of the day we were told that the next morning ALL our kit would be taken off us and not returned until the end of the course about 30 or so hours later, except the clothes we stood up in, a pocket knife each, one cooking pot between us and a bivvy bag/survival bag each,

We promptly hid the half bag of rice, a couple of torches a few hundred metres away under a tree. The coconut shells also got fashioned into make-shift bowls to eat from.

Evening meal was a rib of venison with our potato and carrot, which we again made into a stew so we would have some left-overs for the next day. We all slept fairly well, apart from the noise of screeching owls. The next morning the temperature had dropped and we could see our breath it was so cold - unusual for July.

We had to surrender all our kit the next day and the shelter was checked. We collected some nettles and had a go at making nettle tea, and made a hot drink with crab apples - but it was very bitter, and sent a couple of drinkers dashing for the ‘holly bush’! The leaders didn’t make us do much that day as they realised we would be hungry and have lower energy levels. We were given the task of making and demonstrating animal traps with the contents of our survival tins and what we could find in the woods. We collected lots of wood but otherwise tried to conserve our energy. The rain came down fairly heavy again and that was also a bit hard on our morale.

The leaders did come round and encourage us to give up, and ask for our kit back, and even came round with chocolate bars offering them around to see if we would give in. None of us wanted to give in, but we all wondered how we would go on overnight; hungry and with no warm bedding. We couldn’t even collect more fern leaves to lie on as they were just too wet and would never have dried out before the evening.

We all got through the night after a supper of plain boiled rice (yum!?) and our lovely charity fundraising manager keeping fire-watch all night until one of us took over at 5am, by which time the huge wood pile had been completely exhausted, so we had to collect wood urgently to keep the fire lit. The cold that came up from the ground made it hard to feel comfortable and warm and none of us slept for long at all.

Our reward for completing our ‘task’ was a packet of bread mix, a packet of dried fruit, and some apples and hazelnuts to make ‘Bannock cakes’ for breakfast - they were delicious, even though they were a bit doughy and under-risen.

Last of all we had to take everything down and leave the clearing as we found it. The ashes from the fire filled the latrine in nicely, and the fern leaves would easily decompose.

We were then able to go to a dorm to have a shower, a celebratory buffet and prize giving. We all received an Anthony Nolan t-shirt, umbrella, certificate and a lovely glass ‘trophy’ for participating. There were also prizes for the highest fundraiser (the winner raised an amazing £1400) and for the best overall survivor of the week. To my surprise I was awarded the best overall survivor trophy “for planning, thinking ahead and foreseeing what needed doing and getting on and doing it, for beavering away and always being busy without complaint and an impressive depth of subject knowledge”. The leaders were very kind and said that they were not easily impressed but felt I had shown tenacity, determination and an enthusiasm for the course as a whole - its always nice when someone says nice things about you isn’t it!

My fellow survivors were excellent company, we got on well together and found the task of sharing work between us easy, all pulling their weight and no gripes or groans - it could have been so different and our leaders said we were one of the most agreeable and peaceable groups they had ever had - usually there were tantrums and tears among a few participants at some time or other during the week.

It was a great experience and we had such laughs, discussions and silly antics, so many of which I really wouldn’t dare detail here - it was hard at times, and we all had low moments but overall well worth it and something that makes for great memories. It makes you realise just how much of our easy lives we take for granted.

Cheers to our leaders Nigel, Richie & Sharon, and to my fellow survivors Kath, Cathy, Carolyne and Ben (poor guy deserved a medal spending the week with four women!)

Thanks to EVERYONE who supported ANT by sponsoring me - as you can see I have exceeded the total I hoped for and with the money ANT will be able to recruit and tissue type almost TWENTY new bone marrow donors to save more lives and will aid their ground-breaking research to make even more bone marrow transplants a complete success !

PS - ITS NOT TO LATE TO GIVE - JUST CLICK ON THE 'SPONSOR US' BUTTON ...

THANKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!