Emily Page | Stalham Farmers' Club | Leading speakers from the agricultural industry.


AMBASSADOR’S NEXT CHARITY CHALLENGE

Assistant Royal Norfolk Show steward Emily, now 25, who completed a four-day trek through the Sahara Desert to raise funds for Norfolk charity in November last year, is now planning further fund-raising initiatives in the coming months.

A half-marathon in September and a 400km cycle ride from Vietnam to Cambodia in March 2016 are also on her busy schedule.

As county Press officer for Norfolk YFC and a member of Stalham Farmers’ Club, she will be leading her club, North Walsham YFC as chairman this month.

Having just completed her Teleporter handling course, she is also working hard to re-brand the family’s fruit farm at Scratby, near Great Yarmouth. New signs, website and new products including home-made cakes, jams, chutney and salad boxes are all part of the farm’s increasingly diverse produce offer.

While also promoting YANA, she also works as a natural officer at NIAB (National Institute of Agricultural Botany) at Morley, near Wymondham. And she was offered a full-time post after working on contracts for almost a year on her birthday!

She was also presented with a bouquet of flowers by Helen Bibby, a trustee of YANA and key member of the Anglia Farmers’ team. Fellow YANA trustee Michael Pollitt welcomed supporters to the presentation.

And to add to her busy day, Emily was interviewed on the Breakfast programme by BBC Radio Norfolk’s Nicky Price on Thursday – go to listen again, July 2. Click on the recording – at about 2 hours 8 minutes from the 6.30am start.

A four-day trek through the Sahara Desert to raise funds for Norfolk charity, Yana is the latest challenge for a keen young farmer.

A fun-raising trek through the Sahara Desert was an “incredible experience,” said club member Emily Page, who has so far raised more than £1,300 for Norfolk charity, YANA (You Are Not Alone).

“The trek was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and also the hardest,” said Norfolk young  farmer Emily Page.

Trekking through the sands of Scratby was nothing compared to the temperature and scale of dunes that were conquered,” she said.

After her return, which involved a flight leaving Morocco at 8pm and getting home to Scratby at 4.30am, she was back at work attending a conference at Hickling later that very same morning!

She was surprised by the varied terrain in southern Morocco. There were “occasional hilly stony parts and even a part that was surprisingly covered in greenery! Each day threw a different challenge, something that helped to make the experience so rewarding.”

“Highlights included getting up at 5.30am one morning to climb one of the highest dunes in the desert and watch the sunrise, which certainly made up for the tough walking.

“Another was getting to sleep outside one night which was surprisingly more comfortable than the tent provided!

The team of guides were incredibly helpful and caring.  But they were surprised by a Nomad who suddenly appeared from behind a sand dune selling her assorted home-made goods. “Then she got out her iphone!

Emily said that the second day was the hottest. A combination of the rough terrain and the heat resulted in sunstroke. Feeling rather ill, she wondered if she could actually complete the trek.

However, she continued and gradually felt better. But there were some other “downs.” Having climbed yet another dune and then realised that there was another peak, and another peak.

 Her trip to the start was also quite tiring. It was a four-hour bus ride from the airport to hotel in Ouarzazate, then another four hours into the desert.

“What made the trip was the people,” she said. The members of 20-strong group, who were all strangers, soon found one thing in common – a sense of humour. It helped when spending an intense six days together. “There was a moment when those of us who were at the top of a particularly high dune helped up those who were struggling,” she added.

Her next challenge for YANA –  cycling across Vietnam and Cambodia in March 2016.

Her funds were boosted by £100 from Rob Norman, of Frontier. To date, she has raised more than £1,400 from 37 donors. Donations to uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Yanasaharatrek

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Emily Page, who is county Press officer for Norfolk young farmers, will be swapping her notebook for the wilderness of the southern borders of Morocco. A member of Stalham Farmers’ Club, she has decided on the:

“Exciting and somewhat mad task of trekking across the Sahara Desert to help raise awareness for local mental health awareness charity YANA (You Are Not Alone).

In temperatures, which could be as extreme as 40C and below freezing at night, she will join a party walking for up to eight hours a day. Emily has paid for the trek herself, so all other proceeds will benefit Yana. As this trek is both a physical and physiological challenge, it seemed to tie in with those needing

YANA s help who also face big challenge themselves, she added. Emily, aged 24, has been training by walking on the dunes and beaches near her home at Scratby, near Great Yarmouth, to get as fit as possible. The expedition starts at Mhamid, the gateway of the desert - about eight hours by car from Marrakech, on November 13. It finishes at Zaoui Sidi Abd-En-Nab, near Ouarzazate, and takes in the Chigaga Dunes. The party aims to trek between one to two km an hour  hard walking on constantly shifting sands. Brought up on the familys pick-your-own farm, she did a first degree in graphic and typographic design at UCS (University Campus Suffolk). When she realised that she would prefer to be ploughing rather than sitting with a sketchbook, she decided to study for a second degree atEaston College in agricultural management. Now, she has also taken over the familys PYO operation as well. After joining leading farmers buying group, Anglia Farmers as a fertiliser administrator the day after leaving Easton , she later gained her FACTS qualification. Then in July, she took on a further challenge as a trials assistant with NIAB TAG at Morley, near Wymondham.

This trek will be the first challenge of this nature I have ever undertaken and not something that has been taken lightly,” she added.

She is also programme secretary with North Walsham YFC.

Donation page can be found athttp://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/YANASaharatrek

YANA ’s helpline – 0300 323 0400 or go to the website, www.yanahelp.org