IT was never going to be easy to dog-trek across the North American continent.

But Bicester traffic cop Pc Mark Howard had no idea that the hardest bit would be holding on to his sanity.

The accident investigator helped cancer survivor Wendy Smith become the first ever person to dog-trek from coast to coast.

The team of five people and 19 Alaskan huskies covered 4,410 miles, from Maine in the USA to Alsaka, in four months.

In the end, the mildest winter for 100 years stopped them completing the last leg of the historic trip.

As expedition manager Pc Howard, 34, was responsible for keeping the trip ticking over whatever the obstacle.

"Considering the amount of time we spent together in the support team we got on all right. With Wendy it was slightly different.

"There was quite a lot of friction. It was unpleasant at times but we don't bear any grudges now.

"We were under the utmost pressure and overcoming that mental battle was probably the biggest challenge of the trip."

Pc Howard started back at work at Bicester Traffic Base last week after returning from Alaska on April 7, exactly six months since leaving Britain.

He still has mixed feelings about what he has accomplished.

Not doing the Alaskan leg up the Yukon valley into a complete wilderness of snow and ice was a huge disappointment.

"It was meant to be the big personal reward after the slog for the benefit of mankind. We were upset and depressed by that," he said.

The first two thirds of the trip was designed to go through populated areas of the USA, Canada and Alaska.

Ms Smith, who made a full recovery from Hodgkin's Lymphoma, wanted to publicise the fact that there was life after cancer. Money was a constant worry. A charity that had promised £13,000 to cover their expenses could only raise £1,300.

At one point the expedition was bailed out by the City of Thunder Bay Police Federation which donated £1,300 and raised a further £2,200.

To cap it all, support team member Will Locke, who lives in Oxford, crashed one of the trucks.

He lost control of the vehicle, skidded down a snow bank and rolled it, puncturing the engine on rocks.

Pc Howard said: "We went through all this and still made it to the Alaskan coast only for the weather to defeat us. It left us upset and depressed.

"It had been non-stop for up to 20 hours a day for several months and we were very tired," he said.

He compared the trip to working for Thames Valley Police where he has been an officer for 15 years.

"Once we are proficient at a specialist job they move you on to another department. It seems such a waste when you have put in all that effort." But he also compared the guts and determination that everyone showed during the trip to the plight of a cancer patient.

"What we are saying to cancer patients is you don't know what is round the next corner. Don't give up," he said.

Dog Trek 97/98 hopes to have raised £200,000 for cancer research when it starts giving talks about the epic journey.

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