A nurse from North Yorkshire has taken up the challenge of walking 2000 miles across Western Europe for charity, using maps supplied by Stanfords. Andy Dennis, a staff nurse on the Intensive Care Unit at Harrogate District Hospital, will be walking from A to B – from Amsterdam to Barcelona – to raise money for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF – or Doctors Without Borders – is an international humanitarian medical aid organisation that provides care to those affected by conflict, epidemics and natural disasters in over 60 countries around the world. Andy has previously worked for the charity on projects with displaced people in Uganda and Sudan.
So far, intrepid Andy has raised over £13,000 through talent contests, concerts, radio interviews and burlesque nights. He aims to bring this amount up to £16,800 with donations and further fundraising events. This money will then be used directly to fund two crucially important MSF volunteer placements abroad. Passionate about the vital work that the organisation does, Andy says: “I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work with MSF and I now wish to help provide this opportunity for others.”
The idea to undertake such a trek came to him upon the completion of his MSF project in Sudan: “I like to have a goal that I am working towards at all times and this is usually travel based. I love being a nurse and cannot think of anything better than to be able to travel and help people who have nothing, by doing something I really enjoy.” His epic 2000-mile trek will take around six months and will take in four countries, the Alps, the Mediterranean coast and five MSF offices in major cities along the way. Andy will take the first step of his journey on 13 April this year. As part of his preparations, apart from receiving help from a personal trainer, he plans to lay out over 30 detailed, large-scale maps on the floor of his local gym in order to plot his route. By our admittedly rough estimations, these Stanfords-supplied maps would cover an area the size of at least a few dozen Twister mats!
Andy can be contacted by email at: [email protected]. Author: Tim Cleary Date: 14/03/2011