A DOCTOR who works at Wrexham Maelor Hospital is preparing for a 100km trek across a “volatile” stretch of land in the Middle East where she will visit health clinics and camp with a desert tribe to raise funds for medical projects there.

Dr Rhiannon Lewis, from Trefnant, has been training for the trek across the West Bank in Palestine by walking in the hilly, serene surroundings of the Clwydian Range – but knows the upcoming trip will pose a different set of challenges.

The NHS doctor, who lived in Jerusalem during her ‘gap year’will join 29 adventurers from the UK and Palestine in March for the six-day trek in support of UK charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), which delivers health and medical care to people affected by conflict, occupation and displacement in the region.

Dr Lewis said: “30 years ago I lived in Jerusalem with a group of people taking a gap year volunteering with the ambulance service. There I met my dear friend, Jan Sutton, and thereafter we shared a wonderful friendship. We were both affected by the paucity of healthcare.

“It remained important to us to help people – Jan went on to become a human rights campaigner and I am an NHS doctor acutely aware that, despite all the problems with the NHS, we are fortunate indeed.”

Jan passed away last year, and Dr Lewis was motivated to join the trek in memory of her and her beliefs. “I will be visiting places we travelled to and remembering Jan,” she said “I can’t think of a more fitting way of honouring her memory than raising money for this cause.”

The route will take the group from Nablus across the Palestine hills to Jericho, into the city of Hebron and ending in historic East Jerusalem. On the way, they will also swim in the Dead Sea – famed for its skin-cleansing salt water – and trek across the Jerusalem desert.

Dr Lewis said: “I’m very excited but also filled with trepidation – it will be a physically hard task but also emotionally as we will be visiting MAP clinics and villages and be faced with inequalities and poor conditions.

“The region is volatile but the ground crew, two Palestinian men and two London-based guides, are very experienced and have local contacts so we hope to avoid any trouble.

“We are trekking 100km in total – some days for 7-9 hours and staying in villages, guest houses and one night with a Bedouin tribe in a tent. We will also have a dip in the Dead Sea!”

Dr Lewis, who attends fitness classes in Trefnant and has been attending pilates classes, has been training in the “beautiful” Clwydian Range but knows from her gap year that the desert conditions will present a fresh challenge. She said: “The Clwydians are great training ground as nice and hilly but the heat will be the difference and we will have to be careful to avoid dehydration.

“There are two months to go so I’m trying to do as much as I can!”

Dr Lewis has launched a Just Giving fundraising page to accept donations to the campaign.

Tina Bajec, MAP director of fundraising, said: “The money these trekkers are working so hard to raise will help us make a vital difference to the lives of some of the region’s most vulnerable people.”