From Desert to Doorstep: Why Meningitis Awareness Matters More Than Ever

A special Episode (112) taking part in @podcasthon_en  with @meningitis_now:
From Desert to Doorstep: Why Meningitis Awareness Matters More Than Ever

Two young people have lost their lives and more are seriously ill after a meningitis outbreak in Canterbury and suddenly, everything feels raw again. I’ve only just got back from a Sahara Desert charity trek with Meningitis Now, and I’m trying to hold two truths at once: the most life-affirming adventure of my year, and the hard reality that meningitis can still steal young lives fast.

I take you with me from the Premier Inn in Gatwick to Marrakesh, over the Atlas Mountains, and out into the dunes with an unforgettable group made up of meningitis survivors, charity leaders, and families walking in memory of children and teens who should still be here. You’ll hear what trek life really looks like: constantly changing terrain, Moroccan tea at camp, sleeping under a sky packed with stars, toilet tent comedy, and the moments that stop you in your tracks, including a sunset tribute that had all of us holding our loved ones close.

Alongside the story, I share the key meningitis awareness points I want every parent, student, and young adult to know. We talk about the dangerous vaccine assumption that catches so many people out, especially around meningitis B, why symptoms can look like a cold or hangover at first, and why you should go back and push for rechecks if something feels wrong. We also cover how meningitis spreads in close-contact settings like sharing vapes, drinks, kissing, and shouting in crowded clubs, plus where to get support and answers through Meningitis Now.

This is such a sensitive subject, which I am never one to shy away from; however, I hope I have done our trek, personal stories and loved ones justice with this episode. I dedicate this episode to our beautiful Mia and our Meningitis Now family. To all those who have been affected by this disease, and especially the local young people and their families and friends who have lost their lives... or are living with the life-changing impact of this disease. My heart is with you all xx

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Transcript

Welcome To Forty Fabulous

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Welcome to Forty Fabulous.

Podcastthon And Why It Matters

Local Outbreak And Mia’s Loss

Setting Off For The Sahara

Meet The Trek Team

Mountains To Desert Arrival

First Walk And First Camp

Toilets, Tea And Sleeping Outside

Villages, Drought And Long Days

Camel Rides And A Sunset Tribute

Journey Back And Marrakesh Night

Fundraising Highs Amid Community Fear

Vaccine Gaps And Meningitis B Risk

Symptoms, Speed And Pushing For Checks

How It Spreads And Where To Get Help

Dedication, Promise And Listener Support

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Fabulousness and redefined wellness. Get ready for some funstiness, inspiration, and chat and humour as we journey together towards empowered wellbeing. Let's dive in. Hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the Far Too Fabulous Podcast. You've got me all on my own, all by myself. Yeah, there we go. We're singing already. I hope that this podcast finds you very, very well today. And it's a bit of a special one for me because we are taking part in podcast thon again this year. We did it last year as well, which is the world's largest podcast charity initiative, which brings together podcasters raising awareness for their charitable causes. It's just a just a fabulous idea, basically. So we took part in that last year and we're taking part in it again this year. If you are a relatively regular listener to the podcast, or you follow me on social media, then you will know that Meningitis Now is absolutely my charity of choice. And so it just so happens that at the right time for me to release the podcast to join in with Podcast Thon, I have just come back from doing a trek in the Sahara Desert with Meningitis now. So I thought I would just tell you all about it. It's super indulgent of me. And I wanted to be able to almost use this to document the incredible experience that I had with the most amazing people. And also at the time of recording this now, the local community here I'm in Witchstable, but near Witstabor in Canterbury in Kent is having the most horrific time due to meningitis. And so to be able to use the podcast platform and any of my social media platforms and anything else to raise awareness of this absolutely horrific disease, I'm gonna do that. I don't know, but it's just unbelievable that this Monday I was it was my first day back at work after the trek, and I was like, Oh, I'm gonna, you know, share that well, we're you know, we're back at work, but don't worry, all the pictures will be coming soon. And there were 30 of us on this trek, so and we've all put our pictures into uh a WhatsApp group, so there is so much for us to go through, and I want to try and create like a slideshow for our friends and family and and all that stuff, and and I found it really difficult to go back to work on Monday anyway. And then Sunday night, Monday morning, this horror started to unfold in our local community that there had been an event the weekend before that had turned into a so-called super spreader event in a local club in Canterbury, and at the moment it has left two young people dead and apparently about eleven others in hospital still very, very poorly. It's been oh it's been the pits actually this week has been really really difficult. It's brought back all those memories of when we lost Mia. So again, for people that don't know me or my story, and the reason that I support meningitis now is because my niece Mia died of meningitis B on her 20th birthday on the 5th of January 23. Well, I mean you you can understand it was utterly, utterly devastating. It is utterly devastating for our entire family. And so to have this outbreak so close to our home with young adults about the same age as Mia in the absolute prime of their lives, just out doing what kids do, having a great time, and yeah, and just to have their lives robbed from them is just absolutely devastating. And I said to my sister, Mia's mum, it's like muscle memory in my body. It's not even that I am particularly picturing certain memories of when Mia first passed, it's that feeling in my body and knowing that those other families are going through that in some way, shape, or form is just absolutely heartbreaking. So I want to dedicate this podcast to them as well, and I think just to the community, the wider community as a whole, because there's a lot of fear around this. Unfortunately, again, something like this is affecting these young people, and like they're you know, they're only just getting over, if ever, lockdown and COVID and all that sort of stuff, which affected them far more than it affected anybody else, and now they're afraid again, and it's just horrible, it's just horrible. And it made me the this whole situation made me second guess whether or not I was gonna like cheer and shout about our trek, and it's definitely delayed it for a week, it's definitely put the dampness on it. However, it is more important than ever that we raise awareness of meningitis, and so if me showing and telling you about this trek that I did with 30 other people, and I'm gonna tell you about them in a minute, it's just another way of getting our message out there. Um, so we headed off to we actually headed off to the airport on Wednesday night, which was really exciting because we went and had stayed in the uh premiere in in uh Gatwick, which was I mean, it was a bit of a convey about, it was so busy, but it was brilliant because then obviously we just walked across the road to the airport at six o'clock Thursday morning, Thursday the 5th of March. Of course, it always happens on fifths, it's really interesting. Mia passed on a fifth, she was born on the fifth, and uh and we flew out to Morocco on the fifth, but this was March. So it was four of Team Meebs. Uh this is the this is the name, the collective name we give ourselves. It's a group of my sister's friends and family who have collected together wrapped in around my sister and Alex, Mia's dad, and Lily, my other niece, Mia's sister. And we have fundraised like crazy things. We got together after one drunken evening and decided it was a really good idea to run the Brighton Marathon. It still wasn't a good idea, and we're like two and a half years on, for me anyway. And then we ran the London Marathon. Last year we have put on balls, we've put on silent discos and quiz nights, and it's I mean, to be fair, it's a completely brilliant distraction for us all. It keeps us fit and healthy, and and so we did all the training for the trek sort of on and off together, but me and my sister were doing it quite a lot together, and and just while we're talking about training, my eldest daughter Anya, who is 18, is going to be doing the Brighton marathon in just a couple of weeks. She did her longest run on Monday, 30 kilometres, and then she just I'm just in awe, honestly. She and then she just packed all the stuff up and went off back to uni. Uh, she did say that her legs do still hurt today, but she's an absolute rock star fitting all that in with work. So big shout out to you, Anya. And um, if you're watching the Brighton Marathon, do give her a wave. She'll be in orange and uh and look out for us because we'll all be in our team meebs orange t-shirts as well, with our with our banner shouting and screaming and cheering. And and Mark, my husband, is also doing it. I shouldn't be a side note, idiots. Sorry, Mark. Yeah, it's very, very exciting. But it's just four of Team Meebs that were doing the Sahara Trek saying me, my sister, Nicola, who is a close family friend. They've known each other from working together when they were about what we're gonna say, about 19, 18 or 19, and and having babies together. And then George, Nicola's son, was there with us as well. Yeah, we flew off to Morocco, so we met up with part of the team in London with uh Ali, our fabulous guide from the different travel company, and we jumped on a plane and headed off to Morocco and met up with everybody else that was coming from Manchester, and so we met in the Marrakesh Airport. So let me just introduce you to the team. So from meningitis now, we've got the CEO, Dr. Tom Nutt, who I'm lost for words. He is the most fabulous chap. We just had such a wonderful time, and he is so dedicated to his job and the charity. And I know this week he's had a hell of a week, and he's just been working very, very hard for meningitis now and everybody, the the family, the extended family that it supports. So he was there, and uh one of his team, Lisa E, who's part of the support care team, was there as well. I think maybe I'm looking at these tooth and wondering like what is on the checklist when you're employing people for meningitis now. I think totally bonkers, yep, tick, love them, just fantastic. Then, president of meningitis now is the very fabulous Lisa Snowden. I mean, to say it was a thrill to think we were going trekking with Lisa is an absolute understatement. We'd had the pleasure of meeting her a few times at events and things, and she was just as as you would expect, just mucked in and got on with everybody and everything trek-wise. It was just fabulous. She is part of the charity because she had viral meningitis 15 years ago. She was on a morning programme this morning. Good morning. Sorry, I don't know which one it was. Telling her story about how poorly she was and how close to death they thought that she was. Thankfully, she survived and she's here to tell the tale and continue to raise awareness. Now, with her, and I I believe that it's an interesting mix of of the group, as I tell you, because it's a mixture of uh people that were walking in memory of their loved ones and people that had survived meningitis. And I'm told that sometimes this doesn't this mix doesn't work quite as well as it did with us lot, but it really did work absolutely beautifully. So the the other survivors, thank goodness, we've got we had Eliana who had it when she was at university and she was walking with her dad John or Jonathan as she calls him, and then we've got another George who got nicknamed either Canada George or George Tash because the other George had a beard and he had a Tash. He had it 10 years ago. Whilst he was on the trek, it was 10 years ago that day when he was 17 years old. And then there was Ash who also survived, and he's very good at uh publicising the fact that he is still living with the after effects of suffering with meningitis many, many years on. A great ambassador for for meningitis now. And then of the people walking in memory, obviously there was me and Claire and Nicola and George walking with I can't even say it without wobbling with my voice, walking with Mia in our hearts, in our minds, talking about her. Um, Claire has got a knitted heart that King's Hospital gave her when we were saying goodbye to Mia, and so they give they put the hearts with Mia, and so then Claire has her own one that she takes with her everywhere, pretty much, and so we've got some lovely pictures of that in the sand and all over the place. Then we had Allie and Issa. Ali is mum, Isa is daughter, and they were walking with Hannah in their hearts, who passed away in 2003 at only eight months old. Again, you're gonna see a real mixture of ages here as well. The very fabulous Kellyanne. Now, there was a bit of a mix-up with the rooms and the tents and things, and at one point Nicola was sharing a hotel room with Kellyanne. Now, I mean it was a mix-up, but it was the most perfect mix-up because those two were just born to be in a in a room together. They were fabulous, and um Kellyanne was walking with her son Daniel in her heart, he was 19 months old. Then we had the team Walk for Lloyd, which was made up of Tony and Louise, who are Lloyd's mum and dad, and then we had Graham, Ella, who was Lloyd's girlfriend, Alice, Scotty, AJ, Matty, and Leo, who were all friends with uh Lloyd, and they lost Lloyd in again in 23, and he was only 18 years old, and so they've taken up these challenges, these walk challenges, and absolutely smashed them whilst raising money for meningitis now. And wow, what a team! What can I say? So touching to see Lloyd's friends just completely wrap around the family. They are 20-year-old lads, and they just absolutely got on with it, got on with the challenge, they marched ahead in the in the trek, they looked after Louise and bantered with Tony and Graham. It was just so beautiful to see, and um, yeah, I th they should just be so so proud of themselves. They were wonderful, wonderful. I'll um I don't know, let's see how long it takes to get onto uh onto toilet banter in this podcast, and um perhaps maybe you can uh message uh the boys and find out all about their toilet stories. Anyway, then we had the lovely Mark Normington who was w walking with his daughter Layla in his heart, who passed away just at two years old, and oh these daughters, Mark Cheesman, who only joined the trek in January, so he only had like what six weeks or so to to get all of the kit. My god, that was a feat in itself, getting all the kit and get a bit of training in. So, and the fundraising this dude did was just unbelievable. So big shout out to you, Mark. Well done. And he was walking with Zara in his heart, she was just 15 years old. Oh, love ya. And then we had Lauren and Claire who were walking with Nellie in their hearts. She passed away very, very soon after her second birthday. And then we had uh Paul and Helen who were walking with Izzy in their hearts, and she was 16 years old when she passed. Paul was our absolute kit superstar. Honestly, if there was something that he didn't know about what kit we did or didn't need, it wasn't worth knowing, quite frankly. And um and Helen at one point joked that um whatever trek or expedition was being planned, he could go up into the loft and he'd have all the equipment up there ready for for whatever it is he was he is about to set off and do, and it was invaluable. We all ended up with nearly the same trainers, and uh yeah, it was absolutely fantastic. Oh, so that was the team. We also had our our guides with us, um was Stafford and Abdul, who were just like by the end of it were were part of our team, as was Ali from a different travel company. They were part of the the charity group, not our guides at all. It was amazing, and they looked after us. And the extra bit of the team, like the the guys that helped put the tents up, the camel handlers, yes, you heard that right, camel handlers, were just incredible. And it was also Ramadan. So they weren't eating in the hours of daylight or drinking, they were just absolutely incredible. I mean, I dread to think how fast Massaffa would be if he was actually eating and drinking. We'd never have kept up with him. So we met up with them as well at the airport, all jumped into two minibuses nearly without all of our suitcases because they couldn't fit them in. It was like a terrible game of Tetris trying to fit our suitcases in. And off we went. We had about a four or five hour journey to a place called Wasazat, uh, which had a massive film studio. By the way, as I was driving there, Mark sent me a message and he said that things like Game of Thrones and Star Wars E movies and Indiana Jones, and there were some others, I can't remember which ones, Gladiator 2, I think, had been filmed out there, and you could totally see it. Like you looked across this landscape, and you could definitely see, you know, Ewoks or um Game of Thrones people riding across it. It was just the most incredible views already, and you think we've only just begun. I'd say we've only just begun, it was a long journey getting there, gosh. And then so then we stayed over in a hotel in Wasitzat, and then we were back on the coach in the morning to have another sort of four four or five hour journey out to the desert. The first day, that journey, we went over the high Atlas Mountains. So we went from relatively warm, although I'm sorry, Marrakesh, but that was a terrible greeting. It was raining when we arrived. We were like, what? Uh but we went from Marrakesh up into these mountains and we're up in snow. I've got pictures of my boots in snow. It was Absolutely, it was just it spun my head completely. And then we went back down. I was a bit worried about that journey, but the the roads were pretty good, apart from where there were bits of landslides, but anyway, and the drivers were fabulous. So that was that was great. So then, yes, next day we did a little bit more of the low Atlas Mountains or the Black Mountains, apparently, is what they were also they're also called. Lots of um references to cars because it looked like the landscape in if you've ever seen the Pixar movie Cars, it looked a little bit like the landscape of that. It was fantastic. It and it just like I didn't have any, I didn't have a podcast on, I didn't have my audiobook. We were kind of chatting away in the bus and just looking at the scenery because it was absolutely incredible going through through some of the villages, especially when the schools were kicking out. It was just absolutely breathtaking. And so then you finally got out to the middle of the desert, we felt like literally the middle of nowhere, and yeah, we got dumped on the on the side of the road with our camel bags, our backpacks, and um met up with the with the camels. We they'd set out this amazing lunch for us, this lunch picnic, and then we filled up all of our camel packs in our backpacks, and off we went for our first it was supposed to be about 5k, I think it was probably six or seven, uh, just walking through the afternoon, and it was beautiful, the weather had really picked up, yeah, and we just I think it was a real pinch me moment that we were finally trekking because it had taken like this is what's this Friday afternoon, and we kind of set off our adventure for Wednesday night, so it had taken a little while to get that, but just incredible. Had to have our first nature we uh because obviously there are no toilets out in the desert. There's no toilets, but I tell you what, the 4G was phenomenal, it's better than Canterbury, I tell you, honestly, it was crazy. So um I'm not I'm not very good at nature we're not very good. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know what it is. I'm pretty good at squatting, I just not very good at aiming, maybe. I don't know what it is, but uh I got slightly better by the end of the week, but still definitely not uh gonna put that on my CV as a skill. Is that too much information? I'm sorry. Yes, so I had to have my first one there, and then off we and off we went into the desert. The terrain is different from like one moment to the next almost. So we headed off and it was quite dense with trees and bushes, palm trees, that sort of thing. And and then eventually it did open up into a few little sand dunes, although I wasn't completely convinced that somebody hadn't just put them there for us, us tourists to just go and walk over. But um, yeah, and then we'd go past maybe a farm or something, and then out a bit further into the desert. But it it just changed every sort of 20-30 minutes or so, and so at one point you could be work walking on these absolutely enormous dunes, like you would picture for the desert, and then you could be walking on a riverbed with massive, like round, pebbly rocks that were incredible colours, purples, turquoises, incredible. And then the next moment you could be walking on what looked like a the top of a chocolate brownie, kind of like crispy and crunchy and a little bit soft underneath, and then you could be walking on this completely arid, like crunchy, sandy, just flat with not very many sort of bushes or trees or anything. It just changed so so frequently. It was there was definitely never a dull moment, especially with that lot to talk to as well. So, yeah, so we did our first sort of yeah, six six or seven kilometres, and then we got to where our first camp was. So the camels didn't walk with us, they took probably a more direct route, and so by the time we got there, the mess tent, the kitchen tent was all set up uh where we were going to eat, and they had started setting up our tents as well, all in a big semicircle. We start off each time we get back to camp with this lovely Moroccan tea, which I think is probably a cross between like a black tea and then meat mint tea, um, and maybe a bit of sugar in it as well. But you drink that black, it was just lovely, and a biscuit well welcome to that point, and then usually a bit of free time and watching the sunset. That was on that first night, it was absolutely incredible to watch that great big ball just disappear into the horizon while we sat on sand dunes, it was mind-blowing. And and then yeah, and then we had we had dinner, we've got our head torches going. The dinner was served inside the tent on cushions. I can't remember what it was at this time, but it they were to jeans with you know couscous or pastas, vegetables, chickpeas, it was just it was incredible. And bearing in mind, there was like probably with all the camel handlers and all that lot, there was probably about 40 of us. And so to be able to whip up this amazing food in the middle of the desert was incredible, and then there was always oranges or bananas for dessert afterwards, uh, soup to start with, it was just incredible, and then bread with every meal. Oh my goodness, we we joked that we were gonna turn into a loaf of bread, and that probably I certainly hadn't eaten that many carbs altogether in one go for a long time. So uh I think we thought we were all gonna turn into a loaf of bread, but we didn't, we survived, uh, and it was lovely, and we continued to eat it. Yeah, and then it was definitely encouraged to sleep out under the stars. And so as we came back out of the tent after we had had our meal, it was properly dark by then, and we were just looking up at this blanket of stars. What's really interesting is like I mean, it was it was incredible, and as the nights went on, as the different camps went on, we got further and further into the desert, and the last one felt like we were in the darkest place, and it was the view of the stars and the view of the Milky Way was indescribable, and obviously we couldn't take any pictures, it just didn't do it justice. However, I don't think I truly, truly appreciated how amazing it was until you get back here and I look up at the stars and I can see so few of them. It's so few, yeah, it was just absolutely incredible looking at the constellations, looking out for shooting stars, it was amazing. That first night we decided we were gonna sleep in the tent, but we would lay out for a little while, and so they put a mat out for us, and me and Claire and Nicola went and laid out and just looked at the stars for a while, turned into giggling teenagers. Honestly, I think we probably drove the entire camp a little bit bonkers because we were giggling pretty much about toilet humour. Um I d I there wasn't there was nothing more intelligent than that really going on. Then we plucked up the courage to use the toilet tents. So when we were in camp, there were toilets in the loosest sense of the word, which were basically square tents over a hole in the ground. Um two out of three of them didn't zip up, so it was uh it was great fun, and then when you had your torch on it lit up like a lighthouse, which was fun as well. So we used to go to the toilet in twos and threes, and there'd be like a a mere cat, one of us looking out to make sure that uh that nobody else came round the corner, and of course, was going to the toilet. There was a lot of toilet humour. So that was the first night, and so then next day we were up just before sunrise, ready to watch it pop up over the horizon, which was beautiful again, and then breakfast laid out by the by the food tent again of breads and jams and honeys and what else did we have? Hardboiled eggs. One day we had pancakes. Some of us had lots of pancakes. One day we had um omelets, it was it was just incredible what they could rustle up in that kitchen tent of theirs. We were so well looked after. I loved that by the end of the trek we had given up with the tiny little we had little glasses, slightly bigger than shot glasses, that we had our tea in. And by the end of it, we were getting these cereal bowls, putting scoops of coffee in those, and then filling those that we wanted, we wanted full cups of coffee to keep us going. So, yeah, day two of the trek, we had to get ourselves ready for one of our big long days. So we were going to be walking up to 20 kilometers, so we got ourselves ready and off we went, and again, just another absolutely phenomenal trek. Uh, we're walking through some through some villages and things like that. I have actually forgotten to tell you that on the second day of travelling down to the desert, we had a stop to buy our shesh scarves, our headpieces. So uh everybody got one of those, and the guides put them on us properly, and they I mean they looked fantastic and they were very practical and they were very helpful, keeping the sun off us, keeping the sand out of our face and our noses, they were brilliant. So we all we all headed off with those on as well, off into the desert. We went through one of the local villages. Um, I can't remember what he called it, but basically, it was within walls for their safety. And then once you got into it, it was an absolute rabbit warren, and it was like that on purpose, so that if anybody ever did get in there that wasn't supposed to be, it'd be really obvious that they weren't supposed to be there because they'd be completely lost, and they probably then wouldn't be able to get out, and they'd be in they'd be in trouble with the locals. So it was really interesting to be able to to walk through there. Uh obviously the boys have bought a football, so they started playing football with uh some of the local kids in the in the village. We got some refreshments and things, and yeah, it was just an incredible experience to be able to be able to see how they were living. There was lots of talk from our guides about the drought and how it had made living out there virtually impossible and farming out there virtually impossible. And this, I mean, due to the due to the weather, obviously, and also um as we were driving on the first day, we went past an absolutely enormous dam. I mean, it was like something out of a horror movie, it was so huge, and and I I believe that that's probably got something to do with it as well. Although apparently he was saying it was turned into some wildlife attraction for birds and things. But I couldn't tell whether I thought that was a good or a bad thing. But um, we carried on our walk. We had lunch part of the way through the day. Again, the uh camels had gone on ahead of us, and this was all laid out, and then we went on and finished the rest of our day off to camp number two. We decided we were going to be brave enough to sleep out under the stars, despite the fact it was really, really windy. We were getting absolutely sandblasted, but we just they'd they'd suggested where we went and laid up and uh all across this ridge, and it it looked so funny. The pictures just don't do it justice with us all just laying in a row along the top of this sand dune, and weirdly the wind s just suddenly dropped, and and that from then on it was absolutely peaceful and beautiful, but again, just laying out under the stars with these magnificent people with the magnificent stars up above us, it was it was such an incredible experience, and I know that my words and I know that my pictures can't do it enough justice. You'll just have to believe me, and then maybe one day go and do it yourself because it was amazing. That night I uh I am gonna tell you this. Oh my god, I woke up at about two o'clock in the morning. By this point, the moon was really high. So initially, when when it went really when the sun went down, it was very, very dark. You could see the s see the stars perfectly. And then about sort of 10 30 or so, the moon came up, and we were probably I don't know, three quarters of the way through the moon cycle. So it was quite full, very, very bright, and so it it took a bit of our starry view away, but we forgave the moon. And so I'd woken up at about two o'clock and it's like the sun's out, it was so bright, and I really needed to go to the toilet. I really needed to wait, but it was so quiet, I was completely convinced the entire camp would hear me going to the toilet if I went, and so it took me this is ridiculous to admit for an adult, it took me about an hour to pluck up the courage. It was also cold, and I didn't want to get out of my sleeping bag. It took me about an hour to pluck up the courage to finally go, and we had this conversation with everybody so frequently that had I just got up, gone to the loo, and then got back into my sleeping bag as soon as I needed it, it would have been fine. I didn't have to go very far, the toilets were only a little bit away, but uh yeah, I did eventually eventually pluck up the courage to go, and it was like a comedy-length wee, it just carried on and on forever and ever. I was just like, Oh my god, will it never stop? But it did eventually when I got to get back into my sleeping bag, and then so by then it was about half past three. Oh my goodness, the the temperature absolutely plummeted, it was it was comfortable through the night, and then suddenly it absolutely dropped. So, luckily we were all snuggled in our sleeping bags. So then off we went for our second long day again. About I think probably the walking distance was slightly shorter than we thought it was going to be most days. It was still like up and down the dunes or across the great big boulders, was still always a challenge. And again, we had our lunch quite a bit further through the day, actually, for this one. We had a few breaks on the way, but a bit further through the day we didn't we only had like an hour to trek after lunch to camp three, and it was I think all the way through this, the obviously we all knew the reasons we were doing it, and it was just under the surface, and I think towards the end of this third day of trekking, it was like the emotions were starting to really come to the surface. Tom really beautifully led a couple of minutes at this at this third day at lunchtime for us to just have a moment to to think about why we were there and and what we were doing it for. And and then we went off to camp number three, which was um absolutely mind-blowing. Like the location was incredible, the sand dunes all around it were so tall, it was bonkers to think that you were so high up on just sand. It was crazy. I also forgot to tell you, actually, the beginning of this day, we got to swim. There was a lagoon, and so we had an opportunity to swim, and well, you know me, and open water and cold water I was in. So that was that was very, very cool. I was um I was thrilled about that, and uh it didn't take very long, and we were all dried off very, very quickly. So, yeah, back to cam number three, and they said, Oh, we've got a surprise for you. You've got to be be at the be at the tents uh at half past four. Now we knew that they were gonna be making bread in the sand, and so we all kind of really thought that that that was our surprise. Apparently, Tom thought our surprise was a gin and tonic, but I think he was probably clutching at straws there. Um so we all came to the tent and they brought the camels along with um with seats and handles, and uh and our surprise was some camel rides. So we all got to do just a little circuit around our camp on a camel. Now I've never been on a camel in my life. I have been, I know this is very politically incorrect now, but it was about I don't know, it was probably about 25 or so years ago. I have been on an elephant before in Thailand. But this was this was a bonkers experience, and what was lovely was we'd been watching the camels all week, and you could see that they have personalities, you could see which ones were a bit cheeky and didn't do as they were told, and you could see the relationship that they had with their handlers. It was a it was it was really nice to watch actually. So, yeah, we got a bit of a ride on a camel. The most amusing bit of this for me, sorry, George Green, was when he got on his camel and the camel then sat back down again and didn't stop there, it then rolled over. So George did have to get his foot out from under the camel really, really fast. I think the camel handler was quite freaked out, but it just and it rolled over and it kicked its legs in the air, and like when a dog's happy, it was just it was absolutely hilarious. And kudos to George, he got back on it. I'm not sure I would have done. It was a little bit terrifying. My one kept itching the side of its body, and I thought it was gonna bite my leg. Ella, thankfully, was the first one to squeal, and uh and they made her go back on again, so that was a good example to any other any of us other squealers not to do it, otherwise it'd make us go back on it again as well. So that was incredible, and then we went up onto this very, very high June to go and watch the sun go down, and you could see the horizon like all around, just laid out around. You could see for miles and miles and miles in every single direction. The sunset was just totally unspoilt by anything, not a cloud in the sky, not a building in the way, you know, a dune and a and a palm tree and a few camels. And most of us ended up collecting on this one June. Mia loved Elvis, and so Claire had decided that she was going to play Elvis just as the sun was setting, and so we had this very emotional moment up on the top of this Dune as the sun was just dipping below the horizon with Elvis playing, and yeah, it was it was the m the most incredible. I mean, everything sad, devastating, beautiful, like all of the emotions. It was I again I can't I can't do it justice. You're just gonna have to you're just gonna have to believe me. It was absolutely incredible, and everybody was sort of really holding their their loved ones very close in their hearts at that moment in time, or you know, contemplating the reasons that they were were there and the reasons they were doing it. Uh and it was a very, very beautiful moment. And then we we got to sort of fall down the down the huge dunes again. And it's like Claire often likened us getting up these dunes to like the travelator in uh gladiators, like you're running and just not going anywhere. And I was singing in my head, surprise, I was singing um one step forward, two steps back in my head, because that's how it felt going up the blooming tunes. I was also singing the new Bruno Mars song that we're learning at choir at the moment, round and round and round in my head. Just a very little bit, like an earworm, for about four days. So yeah, thanks for that, Abson Ross. I still can't remember all the words to it. I should have been practiced out there practising. So then we came together for dinner. We had dinner out round the fire, which was just beautiful. They built the fire so that they could make this bread. So they'd made the dough, great big ball of dough, and then he'd flattened it out into what looked like a massive pizza base, and then they had dragged most of the fire off to the side, so they just had the embers, and they buried it basically in the sand and the embers, this dough. I think they retrieved it at one point and then flipped it over and then covered it all over again. And yeah, and then produced this bread for us to have with our with our starter, with our soup, which was amazing. They sang to us for a bit, which was incredible, and then they they offered the stage to us. And what did we have? Renditions, of course, of Wonder Wool, of I would walk 500 miles, uh, which was hilarious. Um, Tony and his his alter ego, I reckon, Tony Badley came out and sang Gold. It was it was just it was such a wonderful, wonderful evening. So wonderful. And then we went and slept out under the stars once more. Um all snuggled up, even more snuggled up. Much more comfortable sleeping on the dunes than it was um just on our mats on the floor, sort of down where the tents were able to be put up. So that was amazing, and as well as shooting stars, we saw a gerbil that night, which I think we probably scared the living daylights out of because somebody had spotted it, and we all put our head torches on and shone on it like it was it was like it was on stage, bless it, with all those headlamps on it, and it scuttered off. But how cool to have seen a gerbil in its uh in its natural habitat. As for other animals other than the camels, lots of dung beetles scuttling around on the sand dunes, leaving the most cute little footprints. Um, we saw one very, very tiny white lizard, very tiny, like the size of my little finger. Yeah, and I think that was pretty much it actually. So um thankful that those were the only things. There were definitely more footprints. When we woke up the second morning, it looked like a cat had walked along sort of the bottom of where our sleeping bags were, little footprints in the sand there. But um, yeah, other than that, we didn't have too many encounters with nature, thankfully. And then the last morning, they had us up at the absolute crack of dawn, 4 45. We were up, getting ourselves packed and ready uh to have breakfast. So we set off I think about quarter past six and walked across, like it was starting to get light, so we didn't really need our head torches or anything, and all packed up for our last day. We walked for probably about a kilometre and a half or so and got taken up onto the sort of up onto a top of a dune and just sort of pointed in in the right direction. We always stood there maybe for about five or ten minutes nattering away, and then the sky where the sun was coming up just got brighter and brighter and brighter, and again, because it's completely like your view is completely unbroken by anything, it's just incredible. The sun just appears and this absolute big ball of glory, and and again, just sort of silence just automatically dropped through the whole group as we as we watched it, took photos and stuff, and then eventually as it was up a little bit more, that's what people were chatting a little bit more and taking some more photos. But what an incredible experience, and what was lovely was because we were outdoors like pretty much most of the time, being able to have that connection with the sunrises and the sunsets and kind of going to sleep when it was dark, and it was just it was really nice, and I really noticed it when we were back into the hotel in Marrakesh, not knowing if the sun had risen or the sun had set. It I felt again I felt quite disconnected, and um it was funny. Kellyanne messaged on the WhatsApp group when she got home. Is anybody finding their house a bit wally? And you know that feeling when you've been out camping and you get in and everything just feels a bit weird, like even the it even sounds weird. So it was yeah, it was a really it was a really strange, strange feeling. Um so once we'd watched the sunrise, we then all just did a very short walk, then about half a kilometre, I think, probably, back to and then we started seeing where the the camels and the the coaches were gonna meet us. Got some last team pictures of us all in our trek t-shirts and things like that, and then jumped onto the buses for the very, very long journey all the way back, no breaks this time. We uh stopped off in Wasazat, had some lunch, grabbed our suitcases, put everything back together again for it to play Tetris and put it, put it all into the coach again, and then off we went. Um, we did have one stop over the mountains at this women's cooperative where they produced argan oil, which was really, really interesting. And I know that um my my youngest kids loves argan oil and her hair, so we got some of that and some lip balm and stuff. It was good to be able to see it being made and be able to support them as well. So that was really cool. And then, yeah, and then we were we were back in Marrakesh for our final night. There was there was definitely threats of not having time for for showers, and I I have to tell you, we were all a little bit panicked. That said, considering we were like baby wipe showering and and and that was that was it, I don't believe that anybody, I didn't notice that anybody was stinky, which was really interesting. Um, and actually the the worst bit was the coach on the way back because we the uh air conditioning wasn't working, and uh we were all a bit hot and sweaty in there. But we did have time for a shower, an absolutely glorious shower, and you can imagine what colour the water was as it poured off of us. My goodness, because it was it wasn't that we necessarily that we were dirty, like I said, we were having baby wipe washes all the time, but the sand and dirt and all that sort of stuff, it was just yeah, it was a lot. So uh if we did, we had our shower and ready for our final evening out, and I don't think anybody recognised anybody because we all had you know blow-dried hair, a bit of makeup, a dress, or not our walking boots, and um it was great fun to be able to then go into the centre of Marrakesh and have a meal with this lot. There was belly dances and music, and it was just fabulous and wine finally. Um, and then we some of us headed out into into the square or into the suits, and then up onto a rooftop bar and stuff, and just continued to to chat away, and it was just the most amazing end to I mean an experience I will never ever ever forget and and cherish, I think, for the for the rest of my life. I believe that um it was well it's been well over£80,000 has been raised. I don't know what the I haven't seen what the last figure was, but we were well over£80,000 the last time I checked, which is an incredible amount for that charity. And I know that they are going to do great, great work with it. Um, I mean I could I've gone on for an hour and I could go on for probably another two. I'm not gonna do that. The we did me and my sister stayed on in Marrakesh for a couple of days afterwards, and we had a hamam, which was amazing, um, and a bit of a a mooch around and did the tourist thing and then had a day by the pool, which was amazing. Having that time to decompress and then be able to connect in because um uh team Walt for Lloyd had all stayed as well. So to be able to reconnect with with them and just sit and and talk without any other sort of time pressures was really, really fantastic, really valuable, and yeah, it was just a wonderful time had by had by all. And I've st I mean I still haven't collected all of the photos together, lots of my trek stuff is still on the bedroom floor, and like I say, after we came back and I was ready to kind of run back into work at the beginning of this week, and then this outbreak break happened, it's I mean it's completely flawed me, and I know that it's done the same to the rest of my family and the the children as well, because it's happening all around them in their schools and things, and it does kind of feel a bit like a I don't know, like a a nasty repetitive nightmare, I think that we feel like we're we're stuck in. Um my sister and Alex are doing interviews to just continue to raise awareness. I know that Tom, the CEO of Mengitis Now, has been on the television lots as well this week, just trying to raise awareness. And I think if there is anything to come out of this outbreak, is is that we get to just keep raising awareness, keep shouting. This, I mean, my sister said today, as well as all of the emotions that it's brought up, there's anger that more teenagers and young adults have lost their lives when it was completely unnecessary. And and I think the biggest for me, I think the biggest awareness around this needs to be that often people think because their teenagers have had a meningitis vaccine in secondary school, that they are then covered for all of the strains of meningitis, which is not true. And so mia had meningitis B, and I believe the strain, the the two that have died in Canterbury of meningitis B as well, and you're the that is not included in the vaccine. They only started vaccinating uh babies against meningitis B in 2015. So there is a big group of young people from the age of they'll be ten now upwards that haven't been covered for this, and so the awareness first of all that you are not covered for meningitis B. So don't yeah, so don't think you are, and and I mean I think that don't ever think that you're silly for thinking that because what because why would you not be? Like, why would they cover you for some and not not others? So I think that that's the first thing to really highlight to know that you can get it privately. It's it is expensive, but you can go and get these vaccinations privately. Hopefully, this awareness will change things and that and if nothing else, this vulnerable group of young people that are growing up now that haven't had the vaccines when they were babies will get covered. Yeah, that's my that's my hope, and just the awareness of what it is, it's really difficult to recognise the symptoms because they are so like everything else, they are so like a normal cough or a cold or a hangover. And so if you do think that something is wrong and you've been to healthcare professionals and they've said, Oh no, it's just it's a cough or it's a cold, it'll be it's a virus, it'll be it'll be fine, and you still feel poorly, do not feel bad or silly for going back again and going back again. They need to recheck you, they need to re-evaluate you. So, yeah, don't just stay at home and suffer. And this is it happens so fast. This disease works so so quickly. So the faster you can get treatment, the better your outcome. I don't believe I did this trip the full justice in this podcast, but I I also don't think I could do unless you were literally there living it. Tom, we're looking forward to the next one. When is it? Where are we going? I know that you've got at least 30 of us that will be coming with you. It is very much the when we got back home and I'm telling people, and uh and I did joke, I was like, well, we'll have to work out what we're going to be doing next, won't we? And um Mark, my husband, kind of raised his eyebrows at his friend and went, see. He knew that we would be up for our for our next challenge. Um, although I am enjoying having a little bit of downtime and and doing my own training just for just for me, being able to sort of really step up the weight training is is what I'm going to be up to next. So um, yeah, I hope that you have enjoyed coming to the Sahara virtually with me. If you have any uh questions, any comments, please reach out, come and chat to me in the far too fabulous Facebook group. If you've got any meningitis specific uh questions, uh get in touch with meningitis now. They've got a hotline that has been super hot this uh this week. But if you've got any questions, any concerns, any fears, uh please don't just sit and suffer with them. Please get your questions answered. And do just know I know that there's a lot of lot of fear around it, and it is a an absolutely devastating disease, but you have to be in very close contact uh to uh be able to uh contract it. The reason they think that this has been uh such a super spreading event is things like sharing vapes, sharing bottles of drink, kissing, obviously, and then being in those loud environments where you're shouting and screaming and like you know, talking very, very close to people. It's those environments that, you know, where kids are having just a whale of a time, our ideal breeding ground for this horrible, horrible disease, and it's really unfair because it's those kids that are you know out having the time of their lives and really living their lives, and that's the ones it gets, and it's the really well it's it's shit, isn't it? But we are gonna keep raising awareness and we are gonna continue to, or I am gonna continue to keep my promise to Mia that I will be wringing the living daylights ever out of every part of my life. Um it's really easy to to be sad, it's really easy to feel guilty about smiling or laughing or having a wonderful time when well well when she is not here to do that with us, but we have to flip that on it's head, and we have to she has to be the reason that we are doing all this stuff. So this is for you, Mia Beer. And this is also for all of my fellow Trek mates. I love you dearly, you hold a very, very special place in my heart, and and also out to all the uh friends and family of all the people that are affected from this outbreak, and I mean and obviously everybody else that is affected by meningitis sending you all lots of love. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for joining us today. We love creating this for you.

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