Shirley plans to finally hang her boots up
NEAABE120417a1, Shirley Butler from Eastwood is doing her final trek for scope.
A 77-YEAR-OLD grandmother who has raised thousands for charity is planning an 80-mile trek around Indonesia before she finally hangs her boots up.
Shirley Butler is trekking the Orangutan rain forest as her 11th and final project for SCOPE, a Cerebral Palsy charity that she has raised £27,000 for since she retired.
She has nicknamed the trek her ‘swan song’.
“It is my swan song because I am getting a little bit too near the 80 mark! I have got to stop at some point,” she told the Advertiser.
“I always think ‘am I pushing my luck? Am I getting too old for this now?
But I wouldn’t do it if I thought is was impossible. I have just got to keep well until I go.
“I have promised my family that this will be the last one and I have got to stick to it!”
Shirley, of Nethergreen, Eastwood, will be learning about the Orangutans’ feeding habits and how they are protected, travelling down rivers in rafts and living in a tent.
The grandmother-of-five, who has so far raised £1,500 of the £3,500 she has got to raise in sponsorship, said she is having to do extra training because for the first time she will not have anyone to help her carry her belongings.
Shirley was inspired to start trekking after spending time with people who had Cerebral Palsy at work.
She has previously trekked 70 miles through Venezuela in 90 degree heat, has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and has trekked through Egypt, Nepal, Vietnam and Peru.
In 2008 she was awarded a certificate for being their oldest woman to climb Mount Roraima in South America.
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Sunday 19 May 2013
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