Woman to skateboard 700 miles for charity
Laura Hatwell, 27, already holds the women's world record for distance skating in 24 hours. Now she's planning to skate from the far north of Shetland to Berwick on the English border, on her beloved longboard.
Laura has been planning a big trip on her board for three years, since giving up her job for a TV company to support a major skateboarding expedition in Australia.
"I knew I was always going to do my own little trip sometime and that was very good practice," she said.
"But I can't do something like this just for myself. You can't skate that far without having a strong reason to do it."
Laura looked long and hard for a good cause to support, and decided on Help for Heroes after the boyfriend of a good friend of hers, Marine Travis Mackin, was killed fighting in Afghanistan.
Laura said: "Seeing the hurt that this caused to her, the families involved, and the feeling it evoked from the people of my home city, Plymouth, I knew I had to do something."
She added that her grandfather served as a Royal Marine in Orkney during the War, which tied in with her trip.
Laura took up long boarding as a way of escaping from her high pressure media job.
She said: "When I first got on a board I fell off straight away, but it's addictive. You feel the freedom of being able to push yourself along."
Eventually, she escaped completely, quitting work to skate.
More recently she's been working as an ice steward at Plymouth Pavilions, but is giving that up too for her six-week expedition.
Laura is being supported by Cotswold Outdoors and Plymouth skate shop Prime Deluxe.
They have helped with a low-riding longboard to suit her 5'3" frame, and a lot of very light equipment.
On her trip, Laura will carry just a 12 litre rucksack weighing 12 pounds.
"Being able to travel fast and light gives you the freedom to go anywhere," she said.
Laura hopes that her trip will be sociable, hooking up with skating communities along the route and showing others that not all skaters are anti-social teenagers.
But she won't be sorry to return home to Plymouth - she says it's one of the best Skateboarding cities in Britain.
To sponsor Laura, visit the website http://www.justigiving.com/northseaskate.
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