Ammon News - A DENTAL nurse from Teesside will be setting off on the toughest charity challenge later this year.

Jodie O’Toole, who lives in Acklam, Middlesbrough has always thrown herself into a charity fundraiser.

Throughout her life, the 27-year-old has done a lot of charity work with various charities.

Most recently at Christmas, raising £3,000 for her young cousin who was diagnosed with leukaemia, by running 10k a day for 40 days completing her last one on Christmas Day.

Now, Mrs O’Toole has signed up for the challenge of Trekking across the desert in Petra, Jordan to raise funds for Jo’s cervical cancer, with the goal of raising £3,000.

Mrs O’Toole said: “I’ve been doing charity work since I was 18. I used to collect for all sorts of charities like the RSPCA, Marie Curie, and Alzheimer’s.

“I have done the Middlesbrough 10k, the Race for Life and the Great North Run.“Recently I lost my friend Jackie, who had cancer. She had been cancer clear for five years but it had come back, I think that’s what drew me to Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust.

“It was a week after she passed away when I saw the walk across Jordan, I think she would have loved to do it with me.

“I think I have underestimated the challenge I am going to undertake, I knew the basics before signing up.”

Mrs O’Toole has managed to raise just over £2,000 target.

The desert trek team includes TV stars Scarlett Moffatt and Amber Gill from Love Island and will be filmed by Fabulous magazine to be aired on TV in 2022.

The walking will be a gruelling six to nine hours a day walking between 10 to 15k a day up sand dunes and rocks.

The team will stay in a Bedouin camp on the nights, setting off at the crack of dawn the next day to reach Petra, one of the wonders of the world.

The terrain and climate will challenge the walkers with heat during the day and freezing cold temperatures during the night.

Mrs O’Toole added: “We are going to Snowdonia with the group, in September, to do some training, it will be a midnight walk to see the sunrise.

“Usually, the training is down to us, but I will get to meet all the people for the first time in person.

“This is all about helping people, which is in my nature it’s just a way of giving back to the community.”

*thenorthernecho