LIKE many Land Rover fans, and readers of this magazine, I had a romantic dream of setting off around the world, in a trusty Defender, exploring the remote, wild and beautiful places on our planet.
In 2006, aged 44, I was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Not only that, but having returned to work after apparently successful treatment, I was pulled back in as the cancer returned. The second treatment was a very difficult, and thankfully successful, full stem cell replacement therapy, where doctors attempted to kill my cancer by replacing my entire immune system with stem cells from my bone marrow, which hospitalised me in an isolation bubble for six weeks. In my hospital bed, I promised myself that – if I survived – I was going to change that dream into a reality. The understanding of mortality and the relief of surviving (now 15 years) that came from my cancer journey pushed me to take the chance to retire early and make my dream real.
Two years before I retired, I bought a standard, low-mileage 1996 Defender 110 300Tdi hard top which had sat in a barn in Cheshire for most of its life, and christened it Nelson (thanks to its ANC number plate). Over the next year it was slowly transformed into one of the most capable overland Defenders in the UK – key to the transformation was the addition of an Alu-Cab Icarus pop-up roof. This created the space and the height needed for comfortable living on the road and, critically, two separate sleeping areas which has allowed me to travel with friends. The interior was fitted out with insulation, fridge, storage, heater, batteries, cooker and water system. External lockers and under-chassis water and diesel tanks to give range were added, along with tough Wolf wheels, expedition suspension, stronger halfshafts, air-locking diffs and an expedition-spec gearbox to give great robust
