THIS Easter holidays, Sam Martin, who left Tavistock College last year, will be hitchhiking more than 3,500 miles to Morocco in a bid to raise money for an education charity called Link Community Development.

This is an annual event which has taken place every Easter for 22 years, during which time more than 8,500 hitchhikers have raised £4,500,000, by travelling almost 10-million miles.

Sam starts his journey on April 14 from Tavistock, and will have an online tracking system in place so that interested people can all keep an eye on how he's doing.  

Sam said: 'I'm a bit apprehensive — I've never hitched a lift in my life, it's going to be a real challenge, but previous hitchers say that it gave them a real awareness of people's kindness and generosity, an appreciation of other cultures as well as getting a taste for the rewarding nature of charity fundraising.

'I think most teenagers take their education pretty much for granted.

'I would like to raise funds and awareness for those children in the developing world who can't get access to the level of education we have.'

Link Community Development aims at improving schools, empowering communities and changing lives.

It works to provide quality sustainable education in Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa and many more countries, and promotes the health and wellbeing of young people and gives children the chance to escape the cycle of poverty into which they were born.

If anyone is interested in watching Sam's progress on Google maps, he is group 42 and the online link is hitch.lcd.org.uk/thumbprint, or if anyone would like to make a donation, they can do so on Sam's charity page, which is at http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/gomorocco">www.virginmoneygiving.com/gomorocco

Alternatively, cheques can be made out to Link Community Development and sent to Samuel Martin, 24 Foundry Mews, Tavistock, PL190BQ.