The media schedule to coincide with the sponsors' public relations events en route was demanding, requiring hours of interviews at the end of each long day.
[citation needed] She had been joined by her former boyfriend, British survival expert Ray Mears, for five months during the journey through Zaire after an uprising had forced her and her team to abandon the support vehicle and be evacuated by the French Foreign Legion along with all the other expats.
[citation needed] The walk raised awareness of Survival International, an organisation which helps protect the lives of threatened tribal people.
[2] Campbell raised half the amount for charity in one go when one of the organisers at Raleigh International sold the advertising space on her forehead during her well-publicised return.
[citation needed] While crossing the United States in 1985 at the age of 18, she became too ill to walk but, concerned that her sponsors would withdraw their backing, she reluctantly accepted lifts in her back-up vehicle to keep to their schedule.
Neither Campbell, nor Brian Noel, her support driver, know how many times this happened between Indianapolis, Indiana and Fort Sumner, New Mexico, a distance of some 1,000 miles.
Brian Noel did not recall it happening at all when interviewed by the Daily Mail after Campbell wrote a book about this episode also detailing the second walk she'd made across the USA to cover that stretch, plus another 1,500 miles to Los Angeles.