A FLADBURY woman is leaving the Vale next year to spend two months living in the jungle.

Shona Mitchell, aged 22, of Farm Street, will be surrounded by tarantulas, snakes, and leeches when she takes part in a voluntary work programme in Belize next February.

Shona, a former head girl at Prince Henry's High School, recently graduated from Oxford University with a law degree and has been working for a Pershore solicitor to try to save up the £3,000 she needs to pay for her expedition to the Central American country.

She will be flying out with Trekforce Expeditions, which selects and recruits teams of volunteers for projects in Central America and South East Asia and, as yet, does not know which project she will be involved with, although she will be one of 20 volunteers.

One thing she does know though, is that she needs to raise the money for the expedition before Christmas and currently, has only managed to raise a third of what she needs.

So far she has the proceeds from a jungle party last month which raised £650 and has been promised £200 by a Vale landscaping company.

She said the adventure part was what she was most looking forward to, adding: "I think it will be a total change of life. I'm one of those people that just loves adventure.

"We'll be getting up when the sun rises at 5am, which is something that my body clock will have to get used to, although I'll probably be woken up by something on me.

"I'll really miss not being able to contact my parents as well as the food, as I'll be living off processed cheese and crackers, along with porridge, rice and Spam."

If you would like to make a donation towards Shona's expedition, contact her on 01386 860703 or 07971 903007.