4th November 2009
A Norfolk adventurer is hoping to beat the postal strike by hand delivering letters to Father Christmas, which have been written by children cared for by East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH).
Sarah Turner, of Hingham, will set off from her home on November 14 to make the challenging 2,000 mile trip to Lapland and deliver letters from the charity’s Quidenham hospice.
Sarah is no stranger to adverse road conditions, having crossed arctic Canada in 2004 culminating with a trip up the now infamous Ice Roads to the Arctic Ocean in temperatures that dropped to -50C.
Her last trip through Norway was for the midnight sun when she took the Guinness record for the Cape to Cape in 1994.
With support from Subaru UK and local Subaru dealership Dingles in Norwich, Sarah will be making her trip in a Subaru Forester. With permanent Symmetrical AWD and class leading economy it guarantees to be as sure footed as Rudolph with ample space for all the letters and the camping kit too.
Speaking about the trip, Sarah said: "Norway was just stunning in the summer, and I can’t wait to cross it in the winter and what a wonderful way to give a real purpose to the trip.
"The last thing the children at Quidenham hospice needed was to worry if Father Christmas would get their requests in time so I thought I would deliver them personally.
"I am delighted to be able to help local charity EACH, which provides care and support to life-threatened children and their families across East Anglia - I just hope Santa isn’t too busy to see us."
Danielle Clarke, community fundraising co-ordinator for South Norfolk and Norwich, said: "It’s great that Sarah has been able to help us out here at EACH with a unique journey to Lapland to deliver letters to Father Christmas.
"We rely heavily upon voluntary donations and Sarah’s journey should go some way to raising the profile of EACH in the local community and beyond."
EACH provides care and support for life-threatened children and their families in their own homes, as well as at the charity’s hospices based at Quidenham in Norfolk, Ipswich in Suffolk, which also serves North Essex, and Milton in Cambridgeshire.
This year it is anticipated that it will cost around £5.8 million to run all 3 hospice services - approximately 72 per cent of this is required from voluntary donations.
