A DREAM trip will come true for Frances Pover in November, but it won't be all plain sailing.

Frances, 61, a retired principal community nursing officer, of Stradbroke Avenue, Lowton, has signed up for a charity trek in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Because the planned date for March next year was cancelled, her journey to Nepal -- to raise funds for Cancer Research -- has been brought forward.

Now she faces a race against time to raise her £3,000 sponsorship and get fit.

Frances, who spotted the trip advertised as the ultimate challenge, had lost her sister-in-law to cancer earlier in the year, and decided to give it a go.

She will join a party flying out to Katmandu from Heathrow to start an eight day trek, sleeping in a two man tent with basic facilities and temperatures well below zero.

Frances wants to thank her big family of four children Damian, Aidan, Matthew and Ruth and step children Jennifer, Gillian and Phillip, friends, family, neighbours and former colleagues at Salford Council for their help in fund raising.