Our latest wander down Helensburgh's memory lane sees us stroll back in time 15 years to the tale of a Helensburgh woman who decided to undertake a trek across Iceland in aid of the charity which was then known as Macmillan Cancer Relief.

Here's how we revealed Joanne's plans in the Advertiser on October 28, 2004...

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A HELENSBURGH woman is embarking on the trip of a lifetime to raise money for the Advertiser's Macmillan Cancer appeal.

Joanne Aranci, of Victoria Road, is donning her hat and gloves and heading for the winter landscape of Iceland next July.

There she will take part in the Macmillan Cancer Relief Walk - a 100km trek across the volcanic landscape of the country.

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Joanne, who works as a building officer at FOST at Faslane, needs help to get there and is already planning a host of fundraising activities between now and July.

First up will be a football tournament at the naval base, and a Christmas concert is planned for December in the Victoria Halls.

Joanne, who will have six nights and seven days of rough camping to look forward to, said: “I haven’t done anything like this before and I have absolutely no idea what Iceland is like. We’ll be walking about 14 km a day, but I’m really looking forward to it.”

Like many people, a fundraising trip was something Joanne had considered for a long time.

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“I have thought about doing something like this for ages and never got my act together until now,” she said.

“I have a couple of friends who have done this type of thing before and I thought if they can do it, I can do it.”

She’s now busy training hard and says her family are getting fitter too in the process.

“I’m not the fittest person in town and I’m not usually one for walking, but my stepchildren are encouraging me as I’m making them walk at the weekends too,” she added.

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