A TAVISTOCK mother is taking on an ambitious quest to carry out six mammoth expeditions in one year, with the aim of raising £40,000 for St Luke’s Hospice.

Claire Lemasurier, who volunteers for St Luke’s looking after the fundraising skydives, will be starting in April next year trekking Machu Picchu, Mount Elbrus, Everest base camp, Kilimanjaro, then cycling from Vietnam to Cambodia and finishing with a trek in Malawi in April 2020.

The idea started when St Luke’s asked Claire to take part in the organised Malawi trek next year and be an ambassador. She said she had never done anything like this before: ‘I’ve seen people do all these sorts of trips but I never thought I would be able to do it because I have my kids to look after. I managed to sort out childcare but then they changed the date to 2020. I already had the drive by then so I said “find me something else to do”. I thought, if I’m going to do this, I’ll do it properly and decided I could do something every two months until the Malawi trip and try to raise £40,000.’

Claire grew up walking on Dartmoor but said she had done nothing like this since before she had her children, who are now 10 and 11 and a half. She has been busy training three times a week in preparation and walks to pick the children up from school with a 15kg backpack on.

‘It’s hard work juggling training, working, volunteering and the kids but it will be worth it if I can raise all the money. Seeing my kids’ faces when I told them my plan — they were so inspired.’

Support Claire by visiting www.gofundme.com/this-girl-can-trek

Follow her journey by searching ‘This Girl Can Trek’ on Facebook and Instagram.