AMBASSADOR’S NEXT
CHARITY CHALLENGE
Assistant Royal Norfolk
Show steward Emily, now 25, who completed a four-day trek through the Sahara
Desert to raise funds for Norfolk charity in November last year, is now
planning further fund-raising initiatives in the coming months.
A half-marathon in
September and a 400km cycle ride from Vietnam to Cambodia in March 2016 are
also on her busy schedule.
As county Press officer
for Norfolk YFC and a member of Stalham Farmers’ Club, she will be leading her
club, North Walsham YFC as chairman this month.
Having just completed
her Teleporter handling course, she is also working hard to re-brand the family’s
fruit farm at Scratby, near Great Yarmouth. New signs, website and new products
including home-made cakes, jams, chutney and salad boxes are all part of the
farm’s increasingly diverse produce offer.
While also promoting
YANA, she also works as a natural officer at NIAB (National Institute of
Agricultural Botany) at Morley, near Wymondham. And she was offered a full-time
post after working on contracts for almost a year on her birthday!
She was also presented
with a bouquet of flowers by Helen Bibby, a trustee of YANA and key member of
the Anglia Farmers’ team. Fellow YANA trustee Michael Pollitt welcomed
supporters to the presentation.
And to add to her busy
day, Emily was interviewed on the Breakfast programme by BBC Radio Norfolk’s
Nicky Price on Thursday – go to listen again, July 2. Click on the recording –
at about 2 hours 8 minutes from the 6.30am start.
A four-day trek
through the Sahara Desert to raise funds
for Norfolk charity, Yana is the latest challenge for a
keen young farmer.
A
fun-raising trek through the Sahara Desert was an “incredible experience,” said
club member Emily Page, who has so far raised more than £1,300 for Norfolk
charity, YANA (You Are Not Alone).
“The
trek was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and also the
hardest,” said Norfolk young farmer Emily Page.
Trekking
through the sands of Scratby was nothing compared to the temperature and scale
of dunes that were conquered,” she said.
After
her return, which involved a flight leaving Morocco at 8pm and getting home to
Scratby at 4.30am, she was back at work attending a conference at Hickling
later that very same morning!
She
was surprised by the varied terrain in southern Morocco. There were “occasional
hilly stony parts and even a part that was surprisingly covered in greenery!
Each day threw a different challenge, something that helped to make the
experience so rewarding.”
“Highlights
included getting up at 5.30am one morning to climb one of the highest dunes in
the desert and watch the sunrise, which certainly made up for the tough
walking.
“Another
was getting to sleep outside one night which was surprisingly more comfortable
than the tent provided!
The
team of guides were incredibly helpful and caring. But they were
surprised by a Nomad who suddenly appeared from behind a sand dune selling her
assorted home-made goods. “Then she got out her iphone!
Emily
said that the second day was the hottest. A combination of the rough terrain
and the heat resulted in sunstroke. Feeling rather ill, she wondered if she
could actually complete the trek.
However,
she continued and gradually felt better. But there were some other “downs.”
Having climbed yet another dune and then realised that there was another peak,
and another peak.
Her
trip to the start was also quite tiring. It was a four-hour bus ride from the
airport to hotel in Ouarzazate, then another four hours into the desert.
“What
made the trip was the people,” she said. The members of 20-strong group, who
were all strangers, soon found one thing in common – a sense of humour. It
helped when spending an intense six days together. “There was a moment when
those of us who were at the top of a particularly high dune helped up those who
were struggling,” she added.
Her
next challenge for YANA – cycling across Vietnam and Cambodia in March
2016.
Her
funds were boosted by £100 from Rob Norman, of Frontier. To date, she has
raised more than £1,400 from 37 donors. Donations to
uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Yanasaharatrek
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Emily Page, who
is county Press officer for Norfolk young farmers,
will be swapping her notebook for the wilderness of the southern borders
of Morocco. A member of Stalham Farmers’ Club, she has decided on
the: “Exciting
and somewhat mad task of trekking across the Sahara Desert to
help raise awareness for local mental health awareness
charity YANA (You Are Not Alone).”
In
temperatures, which could be as extreme as 40C and below freezing at night, she
will join a party walking for up to eight hours a day. Emily
has paid for the trek herself, so all other proceeds will
benefit Yana. “As this trek is both a physical and physiological
challenge, it seemed to tie in with those needing
YANA ’s help who also face big challenge themselves,” she added. Emily,
aged 24, has been training by walking on the dunes and beaches near her home at
Scratby, near Great Yarmouth, to get as fit as possible. The
expedition starts at M’hamid, the gateway of the desert - about eight hours
by car from Marrakech, on November 13. It finishes at Zaoui Sidi Abd-En-Nab,
near Ouarzazate, and takes in the Chigaga Dunes. The
party aims to trek between one to two km an hour – hard
walking on constantly shifting sands. Brought
up on the family’s pick-your-own farm, she did a first degree in
graphic and typographic design at UCS (University Campus Suffolk). When she
realised that she would prefer to be ploughing rather than sitting with a
sketchbook, she decided to study for a second degree
atEaston College in agricultural management. Now,
she has also taken over the family’s PYO operation as
well. After
joining leading farmers’ buying group, Anglia Farmers as a fertiliser
administrator the day after leaving Easton , she later gained her
FACTS qualification. Then in July, she took on a further challenge as a trials
assistant with NIAB TAG at Morley, near Wymondham.
“This
trek will be the first challenge of this nature I have ever undertaken and not
something that has been taken lightly,” she added.
She is also
programme secretary with North Walsham YFC.
Donation page can be found athttp://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/YANASaharatrek
YANA ’s helpline – 0300 323 0400 or go to the
website, www.yanahelp.org