Susan Bartell, Walker, a child of the early 60’s was born in Adelaide, South Australia. After a career in the fashion industry she moved between the ski fields of Victoria and those of Tirol in Austria. In the Australian resort she was in guest services for twelve years and on the side a radio announcer as well as Snow Reporter for Network 10 and Channel 9 television. In her final three years in the ski fields Susan was Retail Manager of a ski shop. During the 12 Australian summers Susan was a Ski Instructor in Austria.

Around 1999 Susan and her partner Ian moved to Melbourne where they had their daughter, Milli in 2001.

In 2005 they migrated to Silver Star Mountain Resort in British Columbia. It is here that Ian is CEO of the resort, Susan is Merchandiser for the mountain ski shop and Milli is happily settled into Elementary School.

Susan is the link between the mums and the support crew for this journey. Susan met Margot on the first day of the 1977 school year and Carolyn not long after in Adelaide and the three of them have been the greatest of friends ever since (Margot and Carolyn are even Godmother’s to Milli). Andrew swept Carolyn off her feet and off to Sydney in the mid 1980’s when Susan began her life in the snow. It is here that she met Debbie who was also in the ski industry. Susan is the daughter to Denis and stepdaughter of Jeanne. Kathy and Susan met chasing their children through a ‘pumpkin patch’ just prior to Halloween 2005 in Canada. Kathy signed on as videographer, for a adventure of a lifetime, within weeks of their first meeting.

Susan is eternally thankful that she got to share this amazing experience with her father. She never thought it possible that on completion of this journey she would admire him and love him even more but she does. She will treasure every memory they shared out in his desert.

On the seven other team members Susan says: “These are amazing people who understand the meaning of teamwork and the value of friendship”. They all gave up so much physically, mentally and financially to aid the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia and it was an absolute honor to have spent the month with them all”.

Debbie Shiell, Walker, was born in 1969 in Melbourne Australia, the eldest of three girls. Graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce (Sport Management) at Deakin University, where she won an award for her profiling research that helped attract the Volvo Ocean series to Melbourne, and where she organised a fun run with two friends to raise funds to send Australia’s athletes to the Olympics. She worked with the Victorian Institute of Sport and briefly at Deakin University before moving to Falls Creek in 1995 marketing the resort with the Chamber of Commerce and then Lift Company, where she met Susan Bartell.

Debbie is the proud wife of Craig Shiell and mother of Madeleine (born 2000) and Georgia (born 2001). Has taken various part time marketing and contract work while raising the cherubs in the leafy City of Monash where Craig is a Councillor, as well as a number of community volunteer roles including President of the local preschool.

In August 2005 stopped working part time to concentrate on raising funds for the Desert Mums research scholarship for the National Breast Cancer Foundation and training for the journey. She accepts she might have gone a bit overboard with the training and fundraising but loved every minute of it. Debbie has shared the Desert Mums story with partner organisations and at a few public events that have inspired others to participate in community and charity activities.

Debbie is thankful everyday to Susan, Carolyn, Margot for being courageous and inspiring walking partners, Andrew, Kathy and Jeanne for their skills and talents in the journey and especially Denis for proudly showing and sharing the Simpson. Debbie has recently accepted the position of Marketing and Fundraising Manager for Interplast Australia who send teams of reconstructive surgeons to Pacific countries to perform surgery on children (eg cleft palates, burns contractures), and looks forward to continuing to make a difference.

Carolyn McLean, Walker, lived the first 10 years of her life as an army brat traveling around Asia and Australia with her family, as her father was an army officer and was always being transferred. She and her family finally ended up in Adelaide as their last stop of her father’s army career.

After finishing school, in 1980 she attended a secretary college where she met Susan and from there Margo and they all became the best of friends. She then went on to Taft College obtaining her IATA/UFTAA diploma in travel. Working for P&O for two years she had the opportunity to travel on one of their cruises where she met her husband of 22 years Andrew McLean.

Carolyn married and moved to Sydney where they live with their three children.

Christopher,19 is at University studying Bio Medical Science, Alexandra who is nearly 14 and Anastasia 12 are in high school at Wenona both into sport, dancing and singing. Carolyn's life is busy raising her three children and working three days a week in travel. The walk was an amazing experience especially walking with friends dating back over 26 years and sharing the whole experience with her best friend, husband Andrew.

Margo Burns, Walker, was born in Adelaide, Australia in 1962.

On completion of school trained and still currently works as a Registered Nurse. Marrying Alasdair in 1985 moved to England to live and work for three years before moving back to Sydney. During the six years spent in Sydney, Samantha and Hamish were born who are now teenagers and enjoying living back in Adelaide.

Even though already having four sisters Susie felt like the fifth and Carolyn who she met through Susie was before long also a dear a trusted friend.

Anne her eldest sister diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, so when the desert walk was suggested for this cause it was a chance to help constructively and avenue positive energy. The result was an amazing journey and a true privilege to be part of this awesome team.

Denis Bartell, our fearless and patient leader.

The press has commented that Denis Bartell is an outback legend and to those who have an affinity with adventure, with our great Australian arid heartland, that may be so.

Self employed from an early age, his business background is varied covering careers as windmill expert, pumping and irrigation, farm machinery sales, agricultural farming, poultry farmer, hovercraft manufacturer, director of many companies including jade mining, geophysical technician, gold prospector, shark fisherman, investor, businessman, author and historian. At 40 years of age he was finally able to more fully indulge his passion – exploring our great Outback.

Some of his exploits include:

• The first solo vehicle crossing of the continent between its widest points – both ways
• First solo cross-country vehicle crossing of the Simpson Desert, the largest parallel sand dune desert in the world, from east to west
• Boated solo 1400 miles down the Murray River
• Boated solo 2140 miles down the Darling-Murray River system
• 3 week solo unaided walk from west to east across the fiery heart of the Simpson Desert – no backup vehicles
• At 53 years young, he completed a five and a half month solo walk across Australia north to south , again passing through the centre of the Simpson Desert. To give some idea of the isolation on this journey, in one section he covered 350 miles cross country (no road, no tracks, compass only) and the greatest distance between towns, a beer or an icecream was a massive 900 miles – a journey of true isolation.
• He drove the first solar powered vehicle 2000 miles to cross the continent from north to south and in so doing set a solo world driving record for distance travelled using only the sun’s rays for propulsion.
• Two month solo canoe journey down the flooded Cooper Creek to finally reach Lake Eyre accompanied only by his pet dingo pup.
• At the age of 62, he re-enacted by camel the journey of the first white man to completely cross the Simpson Desert. During this journey he launched the Optus Satellite phone system by carrying their mobile phone strapped to his camel, from which he could phone anywhere in the world.
• At age 64 he canoed solo 550 miles down the Murrumbidgee River.
• He has traversed the Australian continent in four wheel drive vehicles and a solar car, boated down mighty rivers, canoed the flood waters of the Cooper Creek, walked across Australia and has walked, ridden camels and navigated almost every square kilometre of the Simpson Desert.
• His walk across Australia raised some $70,000.00 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. He has led Government Expeditions to access exciting Aboriginal finds which he had rediscovered in the desert.

He has endeavoured through his stories , television interviews and the news media to encourage everyone to seek their own personal goal and for all of this, he was recognized by the Australian Government when he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal. A few years later he was again honoured, this time with the Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year Medallion.

He has always encouraged the young to get out and experience our great outback and our heritage, to challenge life in general. For the “not so young”, he has endeavoured to show by example that “age is not a barrier, it is merely an excuse and that dreams can become reality if one is prepared to give it a go”.

Denis recently retired from Trinity Beach, Cairns, in far north Queensland after 7 years managing a tourist resort sited amongst swaying palms overlooking the beautiful Coral Sea. It was nothing like a desert, but set amidst lush tropical growth surrounded by the world heritage listed Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.

Jeanne Bartell, Reporting/Liason, was a Brisbane girl who moved to Noosa in the early 1980’s with her then 9 year old son Damien. Jeanne, a Licensed Real Estate Agent, spent the next eight years managing a large holiday resort on the beautiful Noosa River, while Damien completed his primary and secondary school education before entering university. Closely following the sale of her resort business, Jeanne met Denis in the winter of 1990. Denis had moved from Adelaide to Noosa after his divorce one year earlier. This was a second marriage for both of them and they embraced life in Noosa, forging a strong business presence in this unique area.

They decided to capitalize on Jeanne’s real estate and tourism experience and together established Noosa’s first dedicated property management office, Noosa Destinations, in 1991. Their next foray into tourism was a move to Cairns in far north Queensland where they managed Coral Sands Resort, a luxury sixty apartment holiday complex on the beachfront at Trinity Beach.

Retirement came for Jeanne and Denis after the sale of Coral Sands in September 2005. They moved south to Bribie Island where they built a new home on the canals - but no rest came with this change of direction – planning for the Desert Mums project immediately began in earnest and culminated in the successful trek across the Simpson Desert in May 2006.

Andrew McLean, Support Crew, born in 1957, (at a time when Ritchie Cunningham was barely reaching the accelerator pedal of his dads Buick) , was destined to be support vehicle to the Desert Mums , via his marriage to future super mum Carolyn Mclean.

However, prior to that, Andrew went to Sunday school at the local church; primary school at Balgowlah Heights Public and then a snooty little Sydney north shore school called Shore .It was there he learnt to gain a thick skin and to duck. Andrew learnt also that these were two very important and handy elements in marriage too.

After high school , there were stints in a fashion textiles wholesale business learning about good shmutter , then onto retail management traineeship and management at David Jones (where the hell was Megan Gale in the 70's?)

A stint in Nova Scotia and Montreal for a while where Andrew learnt about skidoo-ing or performing like a trained seal when he drove on frozen iced roads for the first time. This was a critical time as it cemented his expansive career of alcoholism, via rye whisky.

Having now worked in his own family business for over 25 years (yes bloody textiles),he interrupted the day to day routine with cleverly marrying Carolyn Mclean , who is acclaimed as the brightest star in his life, and who has , with the greatest talent of always looking sexy , advertised and produced 3 beautiful children ; a very handsome but serious 19 year old Doogie Howser , a sophisticated 14 year old siren who is prematurely going on 24; and a gorgeous 12 year old who is just "still our little girl."

In this constellation of family life , Andrew has intermingled family life with little distractions like sailing , skiing , camping , travelling ,golfing , oh, and driving . Andrew recently featured in Australian Golf Digest magazine teeing off a great golf shot from atop of Big Red.

Andrew's mantra? Live life- ya dead a long time!

Kathy Richey, Videographer & Support Crew, resides in Vernon, British Columbia Canada.

After working 14 years in Vancouver as a news editor and producer for the largest television station in Canada, she and her husband Jack decided to move their young family, Chloee and Hudson, to Vernon BC.

It was there that Kathy met Susie Bartell, when their daughters Chloee and Milli became best mates. When Kathy learned of Susie’s plans to walk the Simpson Desert, she immediately knew it was an amazing story that needed to be told. She is currently editing the documentary of the Desert Mums incredible journey.