HAMPSHIRE'S Katie Lindsay will be swapping her job as an office administrator for building fire stations and whale-watching in Chile soon.

Thanks to a £150 grant from Hampshire County Council and sponsorship from her employer, Katie, 22, is nearing her target of raising £3,200 to take her on the Raleigh International expedition.

She will spend ten weeks in Chile, South America, taking part in community development projects like building halls, children's and old people's homes and fire stations, as well as teaching English and helping develop agricultural initiatives.

Chile is the country which Prince William visited during the course of his Raleigh International expedition.

Katie, of Elland Close, Fair Oak, said: "The expedition is split into three lots of three weeks, so there's a community project, an environmental project and an adventure project.

"The community project is all about helping build up the infrastructure, and as part of the environmental project I'll be helping track the endangered Huemul deer, which is the national symbol of Chile.

"For the adventure part I can do sea kayaking on the open sea with whales and dolphins, which is the one I really want to do, or a trek through the mountains."

Katie's next challenge is to raise money to buy equipment for her trip in October.

She said: "That's my next challenge and I've still got huge amounts to do, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

"I really wanted to go because it's something I've never done before."

Chile - capital Santiago - is the longest country in the world, with extraordinary geographical extremes.

In the far north is the planet's driest desert and in the far south is the Patagonian ice cap, with the countryside boxed in by the Andean mountain range in the east and the Pacific Ocean in the west.