We were due to leave Heathrow on Saturday 23rd January 1999 to fly to Bombay and then on to Trivandrum to begin the India Enfield Challenge 1999 - a charity expedition in support of Global Cancer Concern, who are building a palliative care centre for cancer victims in Southern India. Their existing facility copes with 160 patients a day, and is vastly overstretched. The new �250,000 centre and the staff we would be training to work there would give valuable extra resources to this area of health care, which is becoming far more important as people are living longer in India and are increasingly falling victim to cancer. The new centre would help more of those who cannot afford private health care to receive vital pain relief and support to prevent them dying alone and in agony.

As we drove through the freezing fog to Heathrow we heard that the Air India flight had been cancelled. We carried on regardless, arriving at Heathrow at 9am. In Terminal 3, a throng of nervous riders milled about trying to find out what was going on. The film crew who were accompanying us were I n their element - nothing like an unexpected crisis to make good material for a documentary! After a little while the organisers stood up and announced that the flight was definitely off, and we would be unable to fly until the next day,. Air India were to out us up ion a hotel overnight, and they asked that everyone stayed. We were given information packs, checked our main bags and retired to the Radisson Edwardian hotel.

We made the most of the facilities, and by the end of the evening we all knew each other far better! We had also spent a fair proportion of our travel budget on alcohol! Still, it was a useful team building exercise, and we all went off to bed ready for the off the next day.

Sunday morning was begun with a rude awakening - our flight had been brought forward and we had to be up and out by 7am - as the call came through at 6.50 this would be pretty tight! AS would be the case for the rest of the trip, we didn't get off quite as quickly as anticipated, but we got back to the airport by 8.15 and were through customs and security in good time for the flight. Once on the plane we experienced our next delay; 2 of our number had decided to go home overnight and returned in time for the scheduled 11.45 flight, which delayed us all for 2 hours!