Students ‘Leggit’ to Sahara Desert

Two Bournemouth University students blagged their way 4,700km to the Sahara Desert, without paying a pittance.

The two lads Jack Osborne and Gav Topley were taking part in one of Bournemouth’s Student Unions charity fundraisers called Leggit.  Amazingly they made it all the way to Western Africa in an incredible 36 hours.

They started off their journey from the Fire Station nightclub and aimed to get as far away from Bournemouth as possible.

Their journey saw them travel a distance equal to 45,000 football pitches, firmly placing them as this year’s winners of the fundraising event.  Using nothing but pure persuasion and what was probably a lot of sweet talk, they both managed to get a flight to Malaga, a coach ride to Casablanca and then finally a camel ride into the last leg of the race.

They were met with some tough terrain and have ultimately devised some top tips for next year’s participants: “remember your passport, toothpaste, diarrhoea tablets and hand sanitiser”.

Impressively 150 students this year volunteered to raise money for the four chosen charities including; Children with Cancer UK and Autism Wessex. This one event managed to raise over £12.000, a hefty sum which will go a long way for each of the charities and be seen to make a remarkable difference.

Gav Topley is president of the BU Free Fall and Jack is one of the members. As a club they are more focused on fundraising this year, Gav said: “This was a part of that drive”. Furthermore the communications officer has set up her own business for sponsoring a fundraising event.

Who said determination and hard work won’t get you anywhere? Both Jack and Gav added that the only thing capping you apart from the obvious visa restrictions, will be your own imagination.