Dear friends and family

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As you all know Jonny passed away on October 14th 2010 after spending the last few days of his life being cared for at the Arthur Rank Hospice. Over the past 7 years, George and I have enjoyed helping to raise funds for the hospice as they gave us such amazing care and support at the time which meant the world to me.

Last year something amazing happened...after years of fund raising and thanks to people like yourself, the new hospice was opened! And what an amazing place it is. I call it the 'Swiss chalet', as it is clad in wood with an beautiful eco friendly roof covered in greenery. It is about five times the size of the old hospice and here are some interesting facts I thought you may like to know;

• The new hospice has a wedding chapel!
• There is a hair dressing salon (for locals too)
• It has a bistro which also caters for the in-patients and their families
• There are two massive family 'apartments', so that family from afar can stay close to their loved one
• There are even several rooms for Dementia and Alzheimer patients which have private courtyard gardens to keep the patients safe
• The hospice can now accommodate 26 patients opposed to 13 in the past, which is very much needed in our fast growing community.

...all so well thought through....and all at a cost of £10.5M which was needed to realise this dream. Moving forward it will cost around £2M annually to run the new hospice, all made possible thanks to people like you.

Therefore...it was time to do something crazy to help to raise funds, and so at the end of March 2018 I am heading off to the Marrakesh and then the Sahara for a 3 day walk in the desert!! There will be a team of 20 of us, including my lovely friend Lynne West who I also work with. I am so happy she is coming as I will need someone to keep me under control!

After we land in Marrakesh, we will immediately jump into jeeps and start heading over the Atlas mountains towards the desert. After an overnight stay, we should reach the desert and start our 70 km walk with the nomad guides and camels. We will be carrying our own day packs and will start before dawn every day and then have a break mid morning when it starts to get too hot. By late afternoon we head off again until early evening after which, I have heard from a previous expedition, you just want to roll into bed. What am I most worried about? Using the W.C tent (eek!). After three days of walking we will have a further two day journey back to Marrakesh.

It will be a great adventure and experience and when we lie staring at the beautiful stars at night, with no alcohol in sight (sigh)...I will be thinking of Jonny and how proud he would have been (and envious!).

Thank you for reading my story and for your kind donation. I am paying for the trip myself, so any donation you make will directly benefit the Hospice.

Jennifer (and George) x

p.s. Scroll down to view some photo's of our journey over the past few years...