SIX Knutsford Explorer Scouts have set off for the adventure of a lifetime, and want to thank everyone who has supported them on their way.

Amber Houghton, Annemieke de Jong, Eve Vickers, Katie Davies, Dominic Cooper and Joe Royle are attending this year’s World Scout Jamboree at The Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia in the USA.

The purpose-built camp covers 14,000 acres of forest, mountains and rivers and will give the Explorer Scouts memories to last a lifetime.

They will be joining 40,000 Scouts from 150 countries around the world, and during their trip will visit New York, Washington and Niagara Falls in Canada.

Eve Vickers, who like Amber and Annemieke started their Scouting experience with 5th Knutsford Scouts, said: “We are all so excited. This is probably the biggest event any of us will ever take part in.

“We have spoken with Scouts who have attended previous Jamborees, and they all tell us it’s the best thing they have ever done and have a lifetime of stories to tell about it.”

The Explorers were selected to attend WSJ2019 in 2017 after completing a full day of activities, which ended with a six-person panel interview.

Following this they and their families were required to raise the £24,000 required to send them to the USA.

Amber said: “We started fundraising straight away. We sold Christmas trees, held whiskey and gin-tasting evenings, quiz nights, afternoon teas, plant sales and bag packs.

“We wanted to complete the fundraising by Christmas 2018 so that we could all concentrate on our GCSEs this summer.

“Our first event was in December 2017 and we finished in December 2018.

“We would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who came along to any of our events to support us, to our parents for all the planning and organising, and to Knutsford Town Council, which started off our fundraising with a generous donation.”