Tracy's trek for charity
Tracy Shaw has good reason to raise cash for a breast cancer charity.
Tracy, 28, of Priory Road, Ashton, has lost several members of her family to cancer.
Her grandmother, Winifred Shaw, died from breast cancer aged 42, and she lost her mother, Janet, who was just 32, to liver cancer, when she was 13.
One of Tracy's friends, Mavis Draper, 60, also of Priory Road, was also diagnosed with breast cancer 18 years ago, but was successfully treated.
Now in their honour and to support the fight against the disease, she has decided to take on the sponsored Great Wall of China challenge.
Places are limited and so when Tracy had not heard anything, she forgot all about it.
But she received confirmation of her place last week and is desperate to raise as much money as possible for Breast Cancer Care – in just
four weeks.
Tracy, who works for Virgin Media, said: "I have lost my entire family – most of them to cancer, so I though why not do the challenge.
"Chances are it's in the genes – I will probably end up with it one day.
"I wanted to do something my family would be proud of and give money to charity."
Tracy will fly out to China on April 17 and endure nine days of trekking, starting in Jinshanling, walking around 12km a day along rocky paths and steep mountains, ending in Beijing.
She admits to being a little nervous about the trek, especially as she has not done any training.
She said: "I'm not physically fit enough to do it.
"I thought I could pull out, but no, it's something I wanted to do – it's a bit of a shock.
"It's hours upon hours with high humidity and I'm going to have blisters. It's the pain I'm not looking forward to.
"And I hate heights – I think there's quite a few so I will have to stay away from the edge of the wall. I'm looking forward to finishing it."
Tracy needs to raise 3,000 and will even pay the rest of the sponsorship money herself if she doesn't raise enough.
To donate money visit www.justgiving.com/tracyshaw.
Alternatively people can phone in their donations to Breast Cancer Care on 0207 960 3550 and ask for Claire O'Neill or Sarah Johnson.
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Thursday 02 September 2010
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