Next year, Karen Churches (the Kennel Club’s Product Licensing and Creative Manager) and her friend Máire Hanley will leave their jobs, relationships and homes behind to embark on a gruelling 6 month trek along 4000kms of the Great Wall of China to raise funds and awareness for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

They are inviting other like-minded women to join them on the Women’s Great Walk of China for one of 20 different 15-day expeditions to help raise funds to fight breast cancer – the number one health concern for women in the UK. The Women’s Great Walk of China is a very unique event and will be the first time that an all-female team has walked the length of the Great Wall.

The Women’s Great Walk of China has set an ambitious target to raise over £1million to help fight breast cancer – a disease which affects over 39,000 women every year and claims the lives of over 1,000 women a month. The monies raised will go to fund Breakthrough Breast Cancer's vital programme of research at the UK's first dedicated breast cancer research centre at the Institute of Cancer Research.

The Women's Great Walk of China will start in April 2003 at Yumenguan in the Gobi Desert and end at the Shanhaiguan Pass on the east coast just over six months and 4000 km later. Each woman participating in this unique expedition will be asked to raise a minimum of £2650 in sponsorship for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

For more information on the Women’s Great Walk of China, including details of event sponsorship opportunities, please contact Charity Challenge on 020 8557 0000.