A TEENAGER is preparing for an adventure of a lifetime, coaching sport to slum children in South America.

Sally Phillips, 19, from Consett, County Durham, is preparing to fly out to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro to coach the children in the city’s notorious favelas.

The Northumbria University student, who is flying out on August 16 for two weeks with two fellow students, said she was “excited and apprehensive.”

Her only previous journey abroad was a holiday in Portugal.

Miss Phillips said: “There are three of us going from Northumbria University but students from all over the world will be over there coaching sport to the children.

“It will be hard work, ten hours a day, and I am not expecting the accommodation we will be staying in to be anything luxurious.

“We are sleeping on bunk-beds.

“I expect we will be coaching the Brazilian children in all sorts of sports. I will be taking out tennis balls, soft footballs, t-shirts and things like that for the children.”

Miss Phillips, who is studying for degree in Applied Sports Science and Coaching, works behind the bar at The Royal Oak pub in Medomsley at weekends.

She said staff and regulars there have been “extremely supportive” in organising a collection to help her travel to Brazil and to enable her to take some sports equipment with her.

She added: “I expect it will be a challenging and perhaps an emotional experience.”