We've featured people doing some pretty bonkers things on these pages in the name of charity - whether it be hiking the Sahara, eating cat food or donning appalling casual wear in the office - but Andrew Patterson, a development analyst in the Basingstoke office of Shoosmiths, has possibly topped the lot by last week setting off on a solo expedition to cross the Arctic Circle, with just 12 Siberian huskies to take the strain and also keep him company.
The 500-kilometre expedition will take 16 days and nights (mainly nights - there are only five hours of light a day) and the average temperature will be a chilly minus 30.
He's done a fair bit of preparation - such as hiking Snowdonia, spending a weekend on Dartmoor and walking round Newcastle on a Saturday night wearing just a T-shirt (that last one's a joke) - and is raising money in aid of Headway, the brain injury association.
Rumours that a team of trainee solicitors are prepped and ready to fly out in case there are any problems with the huskies have been firmly denied.
(This article refers to images that appear in the printed edition [2003] Gazette, 27 November, 10)
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