A 76-year-old grandmother from Fishguard is going to sea in a tall ship as a sponsored volunteer crew member.

Doreen Beaumont, from Heol Cynan, will join The Mission to Seafarers' Maritime Museums Voyage from Portsmouth to Bilbao in Spain between September 28th and October 6th.

Doreen will work alongside the permanent crew of the Jubilee Sailing Trust's three-masted barque Tenacious, on a fundraising voyage in celebration of SeaBritain 2005 and the bicentenary celebrations of the Battle of Trafalgar.

She will help in the galley, haul on ropes and may even climb the mast.

Tenacious is designed to take able-bodied and disabled people offshore sailing.

Said Doreen: "My doctor has given me a clean bill of health and will put up a sponsorship form in the surgery."

Doreen read a story in the Western Telegraph about retired maths lecturer Janet Llewellyn, of Burton, who raised funds for the Mission last year on a tall ship trip.

Said Doreen: "My family made their living from the sea. My grandfathers were seafarers - one sailed in mission ships early in the last century.

My father was a fisherman sailing out of Milford Haven and my late husband, Royston, was a coppersmith in Milford Docks."

Last year Doreen's daughter, Ann, died aged 51.

"The trip will also be in her memory. I had been feeling very low but when I was accepted for the voyage, it gave me a new lease of life," she said.

Doreen, who has two grandchildren, attends St Mary's Church, Fishguard, where she is a member of the Mothers' Union and cooks and bakes for the MU Evergreen Club's Country Market.

Doreen's baking and preserve-making skills will help her raise sponsorship for the voyage. The minimum is £1,800, plus a £200 registration fee.

To secure a place contact Lizy Jones, events co-ordinator, at The Mission to Seafarers, on 020 7248 5202 or e-mail events@mission toseafarers.org.