A NURSE who has overcome Covid is gearing up for a monumental challenge to raise money for mental health services.
Respiratory specialist Cheryl Smith has worked with acutely ill patients in Ninewells Hospital in Dundee during the pandemic.
She was also struck down by the virus herself.
Now recovered, she is in training for a massive charity challenge – hiking the 550 mile Highland Trail across terrain with a total elevation gain of 54,700ft. Spread across some of Scotland’s most challenging terrain, the climb is equivalent to almost double the height of Mount Everest.
Smith, from Dundee, aims to start the adventure in mid-May, when she hopes restrictions will have lifted enough for her to trek out and wild camp as she goes from Stirlingshire to Sutherland, looping across the countryside hills and forests on her way there and back.
Initially developed as a bike trail, the route crosses Rannoch Moor and skirts Loch Stack, also taking in towns like Ullapool and Fort William.
But Smith isn’t a seasoned wild camper, making the three-week feat in aid of the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) all the more impressive – and all the more difficult.
The 36-year-old will have to cover the equivalent of a marathon each day and is currently using Dundee’s hilly streets as part of her training regime. She is also coping with a shortness of breath left behind by Covid, but hopes to beat this by the time she sets off.
Smith told The National: “We all go into work knowing we are likely to get Covid some time.
“My fitness dropped because I wasn’t able to train for a couple of months. I was able to start again in January, starting to build it up.”
The venture is in part inspired by former GB rower and European medallist Anne McNuff, whose 2000-mile run along the length of New Zealand is recorded in her book The Pants of Perspective. Smith – who turned to the outdoors to overcome depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety triggered by a sexual assault that happened before she began her nursing degree – said: “I’m just a normal person who read a book and said ‘I want to do something like that’.
“I’m winging it. The last time I went camping, someone else pitched the tent and I had a duvet – nothing like solo wild camping.
“This has changed my entire life. I don’t watch TV now, I watch wild camping videos on YouTube. It’s slightly terrifying.”
Smith is hoping her efforts generate £2500 for SAMH. On choosing to support the national charity, she said: “Everybody has a ‘why’ for what they do and mine is mental health.
“In work, I’m starting to see evidence of PTSD with some nurses. Watching people die every single shift of Covid is taking its toll. I have seen it in patients, who often experience a survivor’s guilt when they do survive. Even the impact of not getting visitors is showing and a lot of people who aren’t able to go out to work are feeling really isolated.
“People are talking about mental health more. I would like to see a massive shift in how we approach it.”
To donate, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/cheryl-smith84
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