India was my first ever experience of being involved in an international project. I learned so much about myself. Never in my life had I seen such poverty and destruction. I worked with a great team of volunteers helping to build a full community in Pondicherry in Chennai, a fishing village totally wiped out by the raging Tsunami of 2004.

The Sahara trek was my first taste of adventure, and it all started from having a bad day at work. I turned the page in the newspaper I was reading and saw an advert for fundraising for the Asthma Society by walking over part of the Sahara Desert. Thinking this would get me out of work for 10 days, little did I know it was the turning point in my life. I raised over the $2,500 needed to do the trip.