A Sahara trek fuelled by purpose

From sunrise treks to freezing desert nights, Jenny Aspray’s journey across the Sahara is a personal test and a powerful act of fundraising.

Jenny Aspray, is a people-person who is always up for a challenge.

As the head of HR at Cranswick Continental Foods, she looks after all the people functions at the 750-person site in Unsworth, where she enjoys encouraging her colleagues to get involved in fundraising for Bury Hospice.

As a gold patron of the hospice, Cranswick Continental Foods, has pledged to raise £15,000 a year in support of its specialist care services; and Jenny has been one of the very passionate employees at the forefront of the fundraising.

Over the past few years, Jenny has twice competed in the Bury Hospice Dragon Boat Race, hosted many bake sales and uniform drives, and has competed in the Bury 10k.

The Cranswick Continental Foods team races across Elton Reservoir

Cranswick Continental Foods was also the proud winner of last year’s Corporate Challenge where they creatively created an eco-friendly project called Second Nature Initiative, which saw them recycle olive barrels into water butts, which were then sold to raise funds for the hospice.

The team also coordinated a food exchange, sharing meat pies, sausage rolls, and pigs in blankets, across their 22 sites; chicken pies were sold to staff for just £1.00 each.

But there was something a little bit different about the Sahara Trek that stood out to Jenny.

She said: “This event just felt really personal, and it’s probably more of a mental challenge than some of the other things I’ve done; I'm sure it will be fun and quite hard at times. I think it’ll be quite a memorable event to be involved in.”

Through hosting a mix of fundraising events, Jenny has already achieved £1950 of her £2000 fundraising target, which she has high hopes of surpassing.

Jenny with Laura Marinelli, Senior Event and Mass Participation Fundraiser at Bury Hospice

To prepare herself, both mentally and physically for the sand and desert hills, Jenny signed up to run a half marathon, and every weekend she takes her dog on a 10-mile walk around her local area of Ramsbottom, in preparation.

She said: “I'm a very slow runner and as I run I tend to think that ‘I can’t do it’. But now I’m mentally trying to tell myself ‘You are a runner, you're running. You can do this.’”

By thinking this way, Jenny has built up her resilience to go the distance.

She said: “The more I can promote the good work Bury Hospice does, the more I can continue on my fitness journey by doing something a little bit different.”

Jenny’s fitness journey started three years ago when she unfortunately experienced the loss of a friend to cancer.

She said: “At that time, I wasn't looking after myself very well. I was quite overweight, and my resilience was probably quite poor.”

“We were coming out of the Covid period, where a lot of people probably hadn't really moved from their houses in a year; I don't think I’d worn shoes for a while. So, I decided to go on a bit of a journey to get myself fitter – not just physically, but also mentally.”

She added: “My friend’s cancer didn’t have anything to do with his weight, but his death triggered something in me where I didn’t want my children crying at my graveside; it was a wake-up call for me.”

Jenny (second) with fellow Sahara trekkers, Craig Smith, Sue Chadwick, and Noreen Egan.

Jenny is putting herself out of her comfort zone, because, she admits, “I don't like the heat and I don't like sand.”

Confident that she can overcome this slight inconvenience, Jenny thinks she’ll be okay.

She said: “I’m building my resilience and I know that it’s not forever; it’s just four or five days, so, I can probably cope for that long.”

Jenny is looking forward to meeting new people, trying new cuisines, and seeing the stars sparkle in the desert sky.

She said: “I just hope to build awareness of Bury Hospice and promote the good work it does by doing something a little bit different.”

Sahara Trek, 6-11th November 2025

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