An art student will swap her sketchbook for a spade when she travels to Borneo to complete a conservation project.

Abbi Harris, 19, from Chalgrove Crescent, Clayhall, aims to raise some �3,000 for trip of a lifetime to help build a school and irrigation system on the Indonesian island.

She hopes to leave Redbridge in June on the 10-week expedition supported by the charity Raleigh which organises sustainable community projects in the region.

Ms Harris said: “I have always wanted to go to Borneo and to volunteer there so I can’t wait to go.

“At the moment it doesn’t quite feel real. But once a have booked my flights I think it will start sinking in.”

Ms Harris, who is studying an Art and Design foundation course at Loughborough University, is still about �1,000 short of her target sponsorship and plans to spend the next month cleaning cars and talking to rotary clubs to ask for funds.

Her biggest fear, however, is not the snakes and spiders hidden in the rainforest but the cocktail of inoculation jabs she needs before she leaves. She added: “I have to have more than 10 injections - but I have a massive phobia of needles.”

To sponsor Miss Harris visit www.justgiving.com/abbiharris.