Local Cadet Chosen To Go To South Africa

Last year Charlotte Wilkinson-Burnett was lucky enough to be chosen to attend a selection weekend in Somerset for a tri-service event, with another 80 air cadets, sea cadets and army cadets from all over the UK after getting through the preliminary rounds earlier on in the year. Fortunately enough, she was one of the 50 cadets selected to go out to Lesotho, South Africa in July 2010 during the selection weekend. There were more than 12,000 cadets from the UK who applied to be considered for this expedition with only 50 making the final team. Cadet 150 is the working title of a tri-service project designed to celebrate and promote the success and values of the cadet movement in its 150th year in 2010.
Charlotte is a 17 year old female who is currently an air cadet at 1181 (Syston) squadron in Leicestershire. She is a very outgoing and determined person who strives to achieve her very best in life. Being awarded this once-in-a-lifetime trip is the best opportunity anyone could ever wish to be considered for. She is a very outdoors person who frequently travels to the Lake District to take part in mountain walking and also fell running, which she also competes at National level. In October 2009, she was selected for the Under 20s Great Britain World Mountain Running Team where she came home with a team gold and an individual 14th place.
In July 2010 she, along with 49 other cadets from across the UK, will depart on an expedition out to the Kingdom of Lesotho, South Africa for a 21 day tri-service expedition. The expedition will be run by Outpost’s Ltd, a company that specialises in expeditions to South Africa. HRH Prince Harry has agreed to be the patron of the expedition and therefore the cadets will be supporting his chosen charity which is Sentebale. Prince Harry will fly out to Lesotho and travel around the various parts of the country with the cadets. Sentebale was founded by Prince Seeiso from the Lesotho Royal Family and Prince Harry from the British Royal Family in response to the plight of the neediest of Lesotho’s people, its orphans and vulnerable children. Sentebale’s priority is to reach the people who are not normally reached by existing aid organisations or the government. In particular they support herd boys, who live in remote mountain country and do not attend school; victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse who cannot live at home; the deaf, blind and disabled; as well as both one and two parent orphans. Whilst out in Lesotho, apart from helping out with the charity all cadets will also undertake a wide range of activities such as; acclimatisation and environmental awareness course, trekking across the Drakensburg mountain range, paddling, abseiling and also a battlefield tour of Rorke’s Drift and Islandwana.
For Charlotte to attend this expedition she has to raise funds of £3500, this will include £1000 for travel and then costs of clothing and equipment which she has estimated at a cost of £2500. She has to raise this amount of money to make her eligible to travel to Johannesburg. Without this amount she will lose the opportunity. Charlotte said “Although I am a keen walker, the majority of the kit I have will not be suitable for the expedition as it is a completely different climate to the UK as I will be travelling in July which is their winter period. Any donation of clothing, kit or sponsorship money for this expedition would be most gratefully received by me as I have realised that £3500 is a lot of money to raise in such a short period of time. Any sponsor for this expedition will be published and any company name will be printed on my kit.”
On her return from Lesotho, she plans to host a presentation evening and will invite sponsors so she can show them what she will have gained from the experience in Lesotho, how the expedition went, and most of all, to thank everyone for helping her. Anyone interested in sponsoring Charlotte for this expedition can contact us at the Syston Town News and we can pass on your details.