Real stories

My 100km trek across the Sahara to raise money for Alzheimer’s Society

Raising over £2000 for people living with dementia

Mary-Joy Albutt is passionate about improving the wellbeing of people living with dementia. In February 2025 Mary-Joy and a colleague from her employer Avery Healthcare took on a challenge to trek 100km in five days across the Sahara for Alzheimer’s Society.

She was looking forward to nights under the stars, campfires and cuddling a camel or two along the way. But not looking forward to the blisters, sand in all the wrong places and the training during the winter months. She said this was the biggest challenge she has ever done.

The first step of the challenge

Day 1:
Left home at 8am.
We met the trek leaders at check in.
Flight left Gatwick 15.45pm, arrived in Casablanca at 16.20pm.
Arrived Ouarzazate 1.20am. Didn’t take long for bags to come through. Coach took us to hotel, arrived and got room keys 2.15am.

Moving to the front of the pack

Day 2:
Up at 6.30am.
Kit ready, bags packed and downstairs for breakfast at 7.30am. After a quick introduction and briefing from leaders, we went to get money from “a man who could give us a good deal” (can’t take Moroccan currency in or out of country). Got in coaches before 9am for 4-hour drive across Atlas Mountains. This included a stop at market to look round and buy scarfs (with demo on how to put them on).

Arrived at starting point. Had lunch, then started walking.
Started off going through abandoned medieval town. Fascinating.

Walked for 10km, 3 hours.
From the outset, I was at the back and struggling to keep up with the pace.
I was almost in tears when the leader came and spoke to me. 

I told her I was struggling. She told me that the pace wasn’t that fast, but I had already got into “back of the pack” mentality. She told me that, every time we started to walk, I needed to place myself at the very front with the guide and start at their pace. If you position yourself with the front of the pack, you are very likely to stay at the front of the pack. But if you believe you belong at the back and always start last, you will find it next to impossible to catch up and always feel like you are being left behind.

I took this advice and, was amazed – for the rest of the trek I started at the front and kept up with the pace, very rarely moving down to the middle of the group. It was like magic; I have no idea how it worked, but it did.

Got to camp. Put up tents. Had cup of mint tea on top of sand dune whilst watching sunset.

Sleeping under the stars and listening to camels

Day 3:
Up at 6am.
Beautiful sky, just before sunrise.

Walked over 20km in about 8 hours, with water breaks and lunch breaks. Heat about 28C. 
Mostly flat, riverbed walking - hard on feet as ankles turning all over the place. 
A few sand dunes in the afternoon, but not many. 

Spent a lot of time walking alone. Thinking about Mum, but also all the other residents living with dementia that I've looked after, and their relatives; how grateful I am for all the things they taught me along the way. How every encounter, every interaction, every experience has contributed to me being able to do the job I do today.

We settled about 9.30pm. Amazing experience sleeping under the stars. Tried to take photos but not successfully. It’s also quite surreal to be hearing the sounds of camels talking to each other as you are trying to drift off to sleep!

Trekking on rocky terrain and getting overcome with emotion

Day 4:
Up 6am.
Kit ready and tents down by 7.30am. Got really stressed and anxious.
Breakfast, stretches, then off at 8.15am.

Walked 24km, over 8 hours. 30 - 35 degrees after lunch. 
Spent morning walking across the rocky terrain of the seabed. 
Although I found this much harder than the sand, I managed to stay with the front of the pack.

Despite my amazing positivity of the previous day, I spent the whole time wanting to cry my eyes out. I knew this trek was going to be tough, and I knew I could do it physically. But why was I falling apart emotionally?
Having spent all 5 hours of the morning walk in this state, just managing to hold myself together, as soon as we started back after lunch, I started to cry and couldn’t stop. I reached out to one of the ladies in the group, and very quickly one of the leaders took me to one side for “a moment”.

She suggested I got on one of the camels for a bit, and I actually stayed on there for the remaining two hours of trekking. 
This gave me the space to rest, take in the scenery and appreciate the enormity of the fact that I was in the middle of the Sahara Desert on a camel!

I will finish this trek. I know I can.

I slept soundly that night – everyone else was moaning in the morning about being kept awake for hours by the camels, but I didn’t hear a thing!

Spotting purple coral and watching the beautiful sunset

Day 5:
Spent 5 hours walking sea beds in morning. 
At one point we noticed we were walking on purple coral. Guide told us that it would have formed about 350 million years ago; they know this as they have found so many dinosaur remains there.

3 hours walking up and down sand dunes in afternoon. 30 - 35 degrees, so very hard work after lunch. Walked 22 km.

Tent up. Stretches. Mint tea on sand dunes to watch sun set. Dinner. Briefing. Took sleeping bag to top of sand dunes to sleep. Amazing experience. Didn’t sleep much as absorbing the night sky.

Finishing the Sahara Trek for Alzheimer’s Society

Day 6:
Up at 5.30am.
Walked up final, very steep sand dune for 7am. 

Watched sunrise which was the official completion of the trek. WE DID IT!!

We left at 8.45am.
4 x 4 rides across the desert. I loved this experience of racing up and down the sand and skidding most of the way! It took us 3.5 hours to get to the nearest road – that’s how far into the Sahara Desert we had been!
We had lunch, then had a further 7-hour bus journey through Atlas Mountains to get to Marrakesh. Breath taking scenery – a bit like driving through Cheddar Gorge but for over 6 hours!

Got to hotel 7.15pm. Had an hour to shower and change into decent clothes, then went out for final meal together.

Raising awareness of dementia

Day 7:
Up, packed and ready for 6.30am breakfast before driving to airport.
Arrived at Gatwick 14.45pm. Back in my safety zone!

Final thoughts – I’ve done something incredible!
Always position yourself with the leaders. Stop trying to fit in with the crowd. Don’t be afraid to ask for help – it is a sign of strength.

I never imagined taking on something like this, but after my mum's passing, I knew I needed to find a way to raise awareness about dementia.

It's about doing something for the future, so no-one else has to go through what we did.