Eight women are in training for a 180-mile husky run across frozen Arctic wastes in a £100,000 charity challenge.
The ladies, who come from all walks of life across Courier Country, met at a lunch organised through the Maggie’s charity and bonded over stories of losing loved ones to illness.
Amanda Nissen’s mother Gill had a lifelong dream to mush huskies in the Arctic before she succumbed to cancer.
Dubbing themselves the tte Huskyteers, after the Norwegian for eight and the Alexandre Dumas novel Three Musketeers, the octet resolved to complete the quest as a tribute.
From March 13 they will spend six days and nights travelling from Tromso in Norway to Kiruna in Sweden, guiding huskies in temperatures as low as -30C.
Fiona Laird from Memus, who works in IT with NHS Tayside, said the challenge was designed to push the women “emotionally and mentally” as well as raise money for Insight Counselling Dundee, Age Scotland, Medical Detection Dogs, and Coppafeel.
Former physiotherapist Amanda, who runs a Christmas tree business in Auchterhouse, said she hopes a long period of training will see the group cross the finish line.
They are on a three-day training exercise in Aviemore and have been aided by team medic Dr Niall Elliott and trainer Pete Thomson.
“Craig Matheson, Scotland’s polar explorer, will also be coming to talk to us, letting us know how to live in the snow,” Amanda said.
“We won’t see a toilet or shower for seven days.”
The other ladies in the team are Georgina Spacey, Sarah Moss, Anna Stephen, Carroll Gibson, Sabrina Simpson and Amanda Wiewiorka, joined by trek secretary Julie Husband.
Organisers Global Adventure Challenges class the tundra run as “extreme”.
Since March the women have gone through a strict fitness regime to prepare them for life almost 100 miles inside the Arctic Circle.
They will be allocated between four and six huskies each and tasked with looking after the dogs, as well as their sledges and supplies, over distances of up to 46 miles a day.
Their progress can be followed at www.attehuskyteers.co.uk and donations can be made at www.gofundme.com.