Trip of a lifeline only strengthened friendship of Race Across the World winners Trish and Cathie
The winners of the BBC1 adventure series Race Across the World had never travelled together for longer than a fortnight before embarking on their epic 16,000-kilometre journey across Canada which had millions of television viewers hooked earlier this spring.
After racing from Vancouver to Newfoundland in the fastest time and within a strict budget, Trish Sail and Cathie Rowe were crowned champions of series three as they narrowly edged out rival teams to win a potentially life-altering £20,000 prize.
Following the filming of the series, Trish left her job working for a bank and joined sight loss charity RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) as a Community Connection Co-ordinator.
Trish, from Exeter, is partially sighted, having been diagnosed with ‘birdshot’ uveitis around 10 years ago, while her childhood friend Cathie, who lives in Wales, is fully sighted.
The friends sat down for a video produced by the charity to reflect on their friendship and how they knew it would survive the pressures of spending eight weeks together racing to checkpoints and competing with other couples.
Although the pair explain that they had gone on holiday together before, they admitted they had never gone travelling or spent so much time together as did in Canada.
Trish said: “We had done a few holidays together but only one week or two weeks. We had done a couple of challenges before, non-stop walks, crazy marathons, but we hadn’t gone travelling together.”
To mark International Friendship Day (July 30), the pals discussed how they had open conversations before packing their bags to take part in the challenge about how they would cope with getting on each other’s nerves, but ultimately, they knew their friendship would survive.
“Our friendship is so tight; we knew that eight weeks together we would be absolutely fine. We didn’t think that we would have a big bust up,” Trish added.
In her role as a Community Connections co-ordinator Trish helps to provide opportunities for other local people with sight loss to connect and share experiences. The charity has recently launched friendly chit-chat groups in Exeter and Plymouth. To find our more, please do come along to one of the sessions. The Exeter group meets in Revolution in Queen Street, Exeter on 3 August and on alternate Thursday thereafter from 12-2pm. The Plymouth group meets monthly on the last Tuesday of the month at Moments Café in George Street, Plymouth from 12-2pm.
You can see the full video with Trish and Cathie talking about their friendship here.
