Hospiscare hairdresser turns up heat for cycle challenge
A Hospiscare hairdresser is set to complete a 450km cycle challenge in blistering temperatures next month after raising more than £4k for the local charity.
58 year-old Lesley Weeks has spent the past year fundraising to take part in the challenge which takes place across Vietnam and Cambodia next month.
Lesley has worked for Hospiscare for more than two decades and this will be the fourth adventure she has embarked upon for the charity.
Exmouth based Lesley has transformed her life through her charitable expeditions going from a ‘couch potato’ to a fit and active adventurer while raising money to help the patients she meets at the Exeter hospice.
Lesley said: “I was anti-exercise, but since starting my challenges I have lost weight and my fitness levels are up as well as my motivation to get out there and try things.
“The patients like to hear about any fundraising that is going on, but also about my treks and adventures; it takes them away from it all for a while and they like to tell me about things they have done or places they’ve been and it does help me to bond with them.”
The Saigon to Angkor bike ride will be Lesley’s first cycle challenge. Having already trekked in Tansania, Peru and the Himalayas, Lesley is no stranger to the tests and trials of completing a challenge, but said that this one could be her most difficult yet.
She said: “I’ve been training all around Exmouth which is very hilly and the route in Vietnam is flat, but my biggest worry on this challenge will be coping with the heat – I suffer from heat stroke so I am going to have to drink lots.
“I have been donated some ice cool packs to take with me which I’m hoping will keep my temperature down.
“The hot weather we had over the summer really helped with my training. People said to me ‘don’t cycle in that heat’ but I made sure I went out in it.”
Lesley has raised more than £23k since beginning her treks and has so far raised £4,800 of her £5k target for her latest challenge, enlisting the help of a more than a few famous faces to help her to her goal.
Lesley said: “I am hoping to reach £30k this year but I might not get there. I have held a quiz night and a Grease sing-a-long event to raise money, but I also contacted a whole host of celebrities who sent me their autographs.
“I used the autographs to make and raffle off an apron with the signatures of famous chefs, a football with signatures from Exeter City Football Club players, and I am currently making a wall hanging featuring autographs from Michael Palin, David Attenborough, Dame Judy Dench, Daniel Craig and Kylie Minogue.”
Lesley is currently deciding what her next challenge will be following Hospiscare’s announcement of its Sahara Trek in 2014.
Lesley said: “I’ve always done things like this, taken off and tried new things, so I always try to do these fundraising challenges somewhere I’ve never been. I like to immerse myself in the culture of each country and meet real people.
“I am considering doing Hospiscare’s Sahara Trek next year, but I’d love to do something in the Antarctic.
“My challenges have totally changed my life and, because I have worked for Hospiscare for 22 years now, I have seen for myself the benefits that donated money can bring in caring for those with life-limiting illnesses.”
For more information about Lesley’s cycle challenge or to make a donation visit http://www.justgiving.com/Lesley-Weeks1.
