A NORTH Dorset woman is preparing for a second challenging trek to raise funds for a charity researching female cancers.

Sally-Ann Hunt from Marnhull will walk the Lares Valley in Peru in September, trekking through the Andean mountains before finishing her journey nearly 8,000 feet above sea level at Machu Picchu.

In 2009, she walked part of the Great Wall of China in memory of her late mother, Ann Dawson, who died from ovarian cancer aged just 54, raising £6,000 for the Eve Appeal and Ovarian Cancer Research.

“This was an incredible journey for me, both physically and emotionally, and through my fundraising and on the trek itself I met many more people who have been affected with this terrible disease,” she said.

Some 18,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with gynaecological cancers each year. For 7,500 women, the condition is fatal.

Ovarian cancer is the most common, said Sally-Ann, who highlighted a 95 per cent survival rate in cases of early diagnosis.

On her return from China, Sally-Ann visited specialists at University College Hospital London, where her mother had trained as a nurse, to witness the work her fundraising had helped to fund.

“That visit was an inspiration to me, and as such I decided to set myself an overall fundraising goal of £10k for The Eve Appeal,” she said.

The appeal's funds received a recent boost from the Ashley Wood golf club ladies team.

Sally-Ann represented the appeal to receive a cheque for £1225 from ladies club captain, Chris Topliss.

Now Sally-Ann is determined to add more money to her fundraising total with her Peruvian adventure, despite the prospect of challenging conditions along the way.

“We will be camping in tents along the way, possibly in freezing conditions, and will have no running water or proper bathroom facilities – not forgetting the possible altitude sickness,” she said.