Marcus Cochrane and Peter Moore are ready to get pedalling. Picture: TONY PIKE (00714661)

A TEAM of 88 intrepid Islanders will set off tomorrow on a charity challenge of a lifetime, trekking or cycling through mountains and rainforests in Ecuador to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for Jersey Hospice Care.

Young and old, male and female, they are due to fly out for Quito tomorrow on the Bedell Group Ecuador Challenge 2009.

The Bedell Group cycle and trek challenges take place every other year in a new country. This year is the fourth such expedition and follows the Vietnam Challenge in 2007 which raised a total of £240,000.

So far the 2009 team have raised £230,000 after staging a series of events over the past few months, ranging from cake sales, speed dating parties, car boot sales and coffee mornings to cycle rides, midnight walks and bag packs.

Staring on Monday, the cyclists will pedal between 50 and 100 kilometres on each of the nine days of the challenge from Quito to the Pacific coast. They will pass through hot and humid rainforest, where tropical downpours are a constant threat, before climbing up through the peaks of the Andes, where the temperature will plummet.

The trekkers will walk for seven days through the mountains, reaching high altitudes in passes and across plateaus.

Jersey Hospice Care is asking each participant to pay £1,000 towards the cost of the trip, which is £1,600 per person. In addition, the cyclists and trekkers are required to raise a minimum of £2,750 in sponsorship. Jersey Hospice Care therefore receives a minimum of £2,150 in sponsorship from each challenger.

However, many of the team, including all those who have been interviewed, stressed that they had paid for all their travel themselves.

It costs around £2.3 million to run Jersey Hospice Care for a year – £6,300 a day – and the charity receives no money from the States. Jersey Hospice runs a home-care service, an in-patient unit and a day hospice and offers physiotherapy, complementary and other therapies and a community bereavement service.

Senior hospice nurse Margaret McGovern, who took part in the 2007 Vietnam trek, said: ‘The success of the Bedell Group challenges and the support we have received from challengers and members of the public are incredible.

‘It is amazing how people from across the Island all come together, and it is incredibly humbling that they put themselves through so much fundraising and training because of their love and support for Jersey Hospice Care.

‘I would like also to say a huge thank you to everybody in the Island who has been so generous with the various fundraising initiatives which has made them so successful for challengers, not only this year, but with previous challenges as well.’

Name: Dr Brian Ellis
Occupation: GP at 41 David Place surgery
Age: 54
Cyclist

Brian has worked alongside Clarkson House for more than 20 years and says that he seen at first hand the great work that the charity does.
He is looking forward to the personal challenge of taking to the mountains and to hitting his target of raising £6,000.
‘This is for a really good cause,’ he said. ‘My mother survived breast cancer and my father unfortunately died from bowel cancer and I have a nephew who has metastatic malignant melanoma.
‘The main reason I am doing it is to benefit Jersey Hospice. I have been involved with the charity since I came to Jersey and they have provided wonderful care for many of my patients.’
Brian was one of two people who cycled for 24 hours (one hour on, one hour off) in the window of New Look in St Helier as part of his fundraising efforts. When they were not cycling, they were shaking a bucket in King Street.
‘That was our main fundraising event,’ he said. ‘I have also received some very generous donations from medical colleagues and patients.’
He added: ‘I am looking forward to the personal challenge. This has been something that has made me go out and train for the past 12 months. I am not really a cyclist, so this is a major challenge for me.
‘The one thing that fills me with trepidation is how my body will react to altitude. I had a heart attack seven years ago, but I have every confidence that the amount of training I have done will stand me in good stead.’
Brian said that he had greatly enjoyed the experience so far. ‘It has been great meeting all the people from different walks of life and building up the team spirit before embarking on the challenge,’ he added.

Name: Andie Rombaut
Age: 45
Occupation: Trust manager
Trekker

Andie and friend Claire Voisin (45) are taking on the trekking challenge together. Andie explained that had been out walking one weekend when they decided that they wanted to take part in a charity trek. A week later, an email arrived in her inbox inviting volunteers to join the Ecuador challenge.
They signed up earlier this year and have since been beavering away to raise £6,000 between them for Jersey Hospice Care. They have done car boot sales and other events, but say that it has been the generosity of family, friends and work colleagues that has been amazing.
Andie explained that she had a bucket by her desk which was regularly added to by staff at Allied Trust Company.
‘In Jersey the Hospice is a community charity and everyone knows of it or knows someone they have helped,’ she said. ‘People gladly give to Jersey Hospice.’
To prepare physically for the challenge, she has been walking the five miles to and from her home in St Martin to work in town two or three times a week, as well as going on longer walks at the weekends.
She said that she was looking forward to getting out into the mountains and ‘leaving the 21st century behind’. She added: ‘I am also looking forward to stepping outside my comfort zone.’

Name: The Rev Liz Hunter
Age: 49
Occupation: Methodist minister
Trekker

Liz knows all about the great work done at Clarkson House, as she is a chaplain to the hospice, in addition to working from both the Bay Methodist Church in First Tower and St Helier Methodist Centre in Halkett Place.
‘Being the hospice chaplain has been such a great experience,’ she said. ‘It has such an important
place in the community and people are always happy to help.’
Like the other participants, Liz has organised several fundraising events, including Voices for Hospice – a concert at Hautlieu in which students and local artists performed.
She admitted that she had not trained as much as she should have, but was looking forward to the adventure.
‘I am not looking forward to the altitude because I am slightly anxious about how it will affect me,’ she added, ‘but I am looking forward to going to a new place and seeing a new culture.’

Name: Peter Moore
Age: 44
Occupation: Air traffic controller
Cyclist

As well as being a keen supporter of Jersey Hospice, Peter also has a family link to the charity: the building where the original hospice was sited in Grouville belonged to his uncle.
‘It is nice to be able to support the charity in this way,’ he said. He and his friend and air traffic control colleague Marcus Cochrane have signed up to take part in the cycle challenge.
It is the second time that Peter has got in the saddle for Jersey Hospice, having been on the trip to Vietnam on a previous challenge. ‘Vietnam was so enjoyable,’ he explained. ‘It’s a great challenge and it helps to keep you fit and gives you something to aim for.’
He added: ‘I am not looking forward to the camping side of it. In Vietnam we stayed in hotels, but this time we will be camping in the jungle. But maybe that is what I am looking forward to, because it will make it more of a challenge.’

Name: Jenny Pryke
Occupation: Primary school teacher
Age: 31
Trekker

Jenny has had quite a few young helpers in her bid to raise money for Jersey Hospice. Over the past few months she has held fundraising events at Springfield School, where she works, as well as raffles, cake sales, car boot sales and coffee mornings.
‘Jersey Hospice is one of the charities which I like to support,’ she said. ‘I also really like a challenge. I have never done a trek before, but I have been to Kenya on an overseas aid-type visit.’
She has been doing plenty of walking in preparation for the adventure, both after work and at the weekend.
‘I am looking forward to the whole thing except the travelling, because it is a long journey’ she said. ‘I am
looking forward to getting into the walking, going somewhere new and seeing Ecuador.’