Locals will get the opportunity to savour the majestic and rugged beauty of Alaska next week while simultaneously helping a worthwhile cause.

Ann Smith Gordon will take viewers on a northern adventure during her 15th slide show for the Patients Assistance League (PALS).

The show will take place on March 8 at Mount St. Agnes School auditorium under the distinguished patronage of the Governor's wife, Jennifer Masefield.

The well-known cancer advocate said the slide presentation will take viewers on a 3,000-mile exotic journey between Fairbanks, in the extreme northwest of the North American continent, and Vancouver in British Colombia.

"Please join us to view this great land where, some 40,000 years ago, the first nomadic people from Asia crossed the Bering Land Bridge to reach what we today call Alaska,'' said Ms Smith Gordon. "There are few places left in the world where one can encounter millions upon millions of acres of unspoiled wilderness to discover wild life habitats, forests thick with trees and rivers bursting with fish.

"We will learn amazing facts about grizzly bears, humpback and killer whales, Alaskan Huskie dogs, moose and caribou! We will spot bald eagles, watch harbour seals and meet `the odd couple'!'' Ms Smith Gordon said she also planned to allow viewers the chance to marvel at the beauty of Massive Mount McKinley during a midnight sunset and then soar amid its snowcapped peaks.

In addition to visiting the towns of Anchorage, Stagway, Juneau and Ketchikan, spectators will also be given the chance to survey the progress of Prince William Sound -- the site of the disastrous 1989 Valdez oil spill.

"From our little ship we will marvel at the majestic beauty of massive ice-blue glaciers and witness the thundering roars, like firing cannons, across the fjord as gigantic chucks of ice fall from calving glaciers,'' she added. "We will land by helicopter in freezing rain on the mighty Mendenhall Glacier, a massive river of ice and attempt to totter about in appalling conditions, avoiding the 100-foot deep crevasses.

"One false step and we would not be here to tell the tale today!'' Ms Smith Gordon said she hoped her presentation would raise plenty of money for the cancer care charity.

"Our expenses for 2000 are tremendous -- almost $600,000!'' she explained.

PALS was founded in 1980 and is dedicated to providing cancer patients, in any stage of his/her disease, with quality care -- primarily in the home setting in order to enhance their quality of life.

Contrary to the popular belief, PALS does not only care for the terminally ill and at any given time, the charity lends a helping hand to more than 100 cancer patients.

The charity employs five full-time oncology nurses, who are trained in symptom control and pain management, and make in excess of 6,000 free visits to cancer patients in their homes. In 1999 alone, the nurses made 6,543 house calls.

To support the PALS' nurses, a trained team of volunteers devote numerous hours to help cancer patients lead as normal a life as possible. In 1999 alone, the volunteers gave 3,459 hours of their free time.

And in addition to the human assistance, PALS provides medical equipment, like electric beds and walkers, as well as medical supplies, free of charge, to each patient.

Tickets for next Wednesday's 8 p.m. slide presentation are $10 and are available from PALS' volunteers or the PALS' office on Dunrossil House, 21 Point Finger Road in Paget.

For more information call 236-7257.

Ice Queens: Mary Suther, PALS memorial secretary Margaret Tricker and PALS president and CEO Ann Smith Gordon used a helicopter to get on mighty Mendenhall Glacier. Ms Smith Gordon will relate her experiences and share her slides of her `Adventures in Alaska' on March 8.