Guinness World Record holder and television presenter, Ed Stafford will be heading ‘Into The Wild’ with fundraisers this year for a brand new LOROS event.
Explorer Ed, who grew up in Leicestershire and now hosts his own TV series on the Discovery Channel, will be giving fundraisers advice on how to survive the wild, as they spend 36 hours in an unknown location to raise money for LOROS.
'Into The Wild’, a fundraising initiative which is brand new for 2017, will see teams of four to six blindfolded and taken to a secret woodland location in the county, where they will be required to build their own shelter to sleep in as well as cook all their own food on a fire they built. Ed, who has the Guinness World record for being the first person to walk the entire length of the Amazon River said: “Into The Wild sounds like such an exciting way to mix the challenge of survival with raising money for charity, while having the element of fun too.
“It might seem easy at first but I can tell you, being dropped off in an unknown location and asked to fend for themselves for 36 hours, will really push the teams to their limits.”
Ed, whose walk across the Amazon was made into a TV series for Channel 5 and Discovery, will be spending time with participants on the Saturday morning.
“I can’t wait to meet everyone taking part, before giving them a few tips and some guidance on how to survive the wild,” added Ed, who also won the title of European Adventurer of the Year in 2011.
“It will be great to see how they work together to survive a weekend in the wild, without the luxuries that so many have become accustomed to.”
In addition to basic survival, the teams taking part will also need to explore the area by day or by night, where numerous challenges will await to test their skills and reward them with items to aid their efforts.
Into the Wild, which is being supported by Leicester Outdoor Pursuits Centre, will run from Friday 14th to Sunday 16th July and both individuals and groups are welcome to take sign up.
LOROS Fundraising Co-ordinator Andrew Ward said: “Into The Wild is all about giving people the opportunity to experience the outdoors in a real survival situation.
“While we’ll have instructors on hand to point people in the right direction, the emphasis is on the groups working together to survive out on their own with very limited supplies.
“If you’ve set yourself a personal challenge to take part, that’s great, individual sign-ups will be allocated a team later on. Alternatively, this can be a fantastic team-building exercise for friends or colleagues.”
Any teams or individuals interested in the event can request their free information pack or sign-up at loros.co.uk/wilderness.
