One of the biggest personal challenges I ever put myself through was driving from my house to Nairobi in Kenya! There was nothing glamorous about it. It was me with a group of young men and a few girls looking to take a break from what we considered our unadventurous teenage lives. I was just turning 20 at the time and it was a trip that inspired a passion for poppies but it also mapped out the next 15 years of my life including getting married and having 2 wonderful children. At times during the journey; when coping with hunger, zero sanitation, deadly spiders and criminal gangs for example, I would ask myself “why am I doing this?”, “Will we survive?” and I had no answer. The whole thing had seemed like a good idea before we started.

There were no mobile phones back then and nobody in those dangerous situations would care that my dad was Eric Morecambe! We had very little money and when you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere there are fewer and fewer places to spend money! Food and water was rationed and at times we really thought we might not have enough for everyone. We were literally (and in every survival sense of the phrase) ‘on our own’. However afterwards, when we managed to return home in pretty much one piece, I knew that it had been worthwhile. It was an experience that I would never repeat but I’m glad to have it as a memory.