Friday, February 14, 2003

The News 
Lisburn, Northern Ireland

Globe Trotting Polly 
drops into Lisburn
By Susan Mathai

Most People take a plane, bus, train or ferry when embarking on their travels.

Not so for an American woman who is on a 'round the world' walking expedition which will see her arriving in Lisburn early next week.

However, 40-year-oild Polly Letofsky, isn't walking across the globe for pleasure, but instead to raise breast cancer awareness and collect funds for research into the condition.

She will arrive in the Tesco store in Dunmurry, at approximately 10:00 a.m. on Monday and be at Lisburn's Island Centre by 12 noon.

on Tuesday Polly can be seen walking from island Centre at 9:30am, at Hillsborough roundabout around 10:30am, Dromore at 12:30pm and Banbridge at 3:00pm.

Polly began her adventurous walking expedition around the world on August 1, 1999.  since then she has travelled by Shank's mare from Colorado to the US Pacific Coast and the length of new Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Turkey and from Greece to Belgium within continental Europe.

From the age of 12, Polly had a dream to travel the world on foot.  However, it was 25 years later, while living in Vail, Colorado, when she found herself surrounded by women suffering from breast cancer--friends, family members, co-workers and community members--that she was inspired to put her best foot forward to help this good cause.

As she found out more and more about breast cancer Polly discovered it to be a condition that was not just prevalent in her town but in every single community, affecting numerous women worldwide.

In each country there is an awareness campaign of early detection and a variety of health programmes in place to assist those with the condition.

It was with that realisation that her childhood dream was re-ignited and Polly began planning her walk around the world for breast cancer.

Polly's GlobalWalk is set to take nearly five years and cover four continents--a distance of over 15,000 miles.  She walks around 16 miles a day but fortunately so far has sustained no injury or illness.

Polly has however, trekked her way through 22 pairs of New Balance shoes and anticipates that she will go through at least another eight or so pairs before all her walking's done.

Lions Club International has become GlobalWalk's biggest sponsor supporting Polly from town to town around the globe, providing her with accommodation, food, internet access, errands, laundry, and of course organising press and publicity, as that is one of main ways she achieves her awareness work.

to find out more information you can read about Polly's trip which takes the form of a daily journal on the website:  www.globalwalk.org.

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