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Dear Former and Future Travellers with Peter Sommer Travels,

Helena Tomas, guiding.

A number of our previous travellers have set up a fundraising page on behalf of one of our tour leaders, Professor Helena Tomas, and asked if we would share her story and details of their fundraising attempt.

If you have travelled with us during the last few years, there's a good chance you've come across Helena Tomas. Helena, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, has been part of our team since 2016. She was instrumental in developing our gulet cruises along the coast of Dalmatia, and from 2016 to spring 2019 led many of them as our on-board expert. She also made an appearance on some of our Greek cruises - Greece and its archaeology being one of her great passions.

There is more to say about Helena as an academic, a scholar and teacher: her work on the Bronze Age scripts of Crete, her degree from Oxford, her excavations in Croatia, her hands-on engagement with so many topics and the love and loyalty she inspires in her students. But to all of us who know her, she is first and foremost a fabulous colleague and friend, inspiring with her love of the past, her interest in others and her contagious love of life.

A little over a year ago, Helena suffered a brain aneurysm resulting in two strokes, a life-threatening event leading to severe physical difficulties. Since then she has had to go through multiple complex operations (the most recent one only a few weeks ago) and intense rehabilitation programmes, and while she has made progress, she will need considerable medical treatment and care on her road to recovery.

Some of our former guests (Sue, Ann and Margaret) who have travelled with Helena, decided they wanted to try and help with her recuperation, and have very kindly set up a Go Fund Me Page on Helena's behalf. If you are interested and would like to know more you can access it here.

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