Fylde mum prepares to Ride the Nile in aid of Armed Forces charity SSAFA

Lynda Slack, from Lytham St Annes, is doing her SSAFA fundraising on two wheels, but not around the leafy lanes of Lancashire, nor up and down its many hills.

She is going further afield – all the way to the land of the Pyramids to Ride the Nile.

Lynda, who is married to a warrant officer class 2 on HMS Albion, explains she has got a special reason to support the charity.

She said: “I know the value of SSAFA’s work for our Forces’ families.

"I’ve been a Royal Navy wife for 28 years with my hubby, and our daughters’ dad, away for months on end on deployments.

"But he’s always known that our girls and I have support back home and that’s where my support for SSAFA comes in.

“I’ll always remember travelling up to Scotland with my two daughters three days after the youngest had her appendix removed at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

"She felt every bump in the road.

“It was so painful, but this girl was determined to meet her dad's ship, HMS Bangor, as they came back after a very long deployment. He didn’t even know she was coming.

“We turned up that morning exhausted and were greeted by a SSAFA volunteer who not only recognised us from a visit two years earlier but saw quite clearly that my daughter was struggling to walk.

“She found us a wheelchair – no idea from where – and gave us refreshments. and when Bangor came alongside, she cleared a path for daughter and dad to be reunited after eight months.

“We all cried.

“I will never forget that day and the difference that SSAFA volunteer made. We need more of these heroes to support our service personnel and the families at home, and this is my I’m doing this fundraiser.”

Lynda sets off next month and will complete the 270-mile route in six days.

Her route begins in Cairo on November 8 and takes in Memphis, Luxor, Aswan, and the Valley of the Kings.

Starting daily at around 6am, she’ll complete an average of 45 miles a day in highs of around 23°C and with relative humidity of around 65 per cent.

She’s been putting in plenty of practice with fellow Nile fundraiser Lyndsay on and around Blackpool Promenade.

Lynda added: “Well, it’s going to be warm. It’s also going to be sandy. On top of that, I haven’t really ridden a bike since I was a teenager, which was… a few years ago.”

Lynda added that she wanted to do something a little different for SSAFA, so her brother suggested a two-wheeled fundraiser “before she gets too old” adding that she can “do the walking challenges another day”.

The word “easy” does not, however, appear to be in Lynda’s vocabulary.

“If you’re doing a challenge,” she said, “then make it challenging.

“SSAFA is there, like it has been for nearly 140 years, for men and women, and their families, who have faced real challenges, so a few days exertion, sand in my face, saddle soreness, and aching limbs is small beer by comparison.”

To support her fundraising for SSAFA, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/lynda-slack2