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A nursing graduate from Â鶹ƵµÀ Leicester (DMU) has drawn on the skills and experience she gained from her course to help her conquer her personal fears – and all so she can help others.

Nicola Palmer is asking people to set her ‘weird and wonderful’ challenges as she travels by rail across Europe to raise money for Mencap, a charity she became passionate about through her role as a support worker and while studying for her

It took a great deal of courage for the 36-year-old to even apply for her course, as she suffered with anxiety disorder. But the whole experience proved a huge success and she is drawing on the same resolve to tackle the challenges she is being set on her month-long adventure.

The 36-year-old, who set off backpacking in November, was originally looking at a longer trip volunteering overseas. When this proved too expensive she came up with her plan B – asking people to set her dares in the various countries she will be visiting, via Twitter.

All she asks in return is that her challengers make a donation to Mencap. Nicola said: “It was just an idea I had one day and everyone thought it was good, and it spiralled into this.”

So far she has completed nine challenges, in Rotterdam, Berlin, Prague and Budapest, many of which have involved conquering her fear of heights. She has been to the top of the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin, travelled up the steep funicular railway in Budapest and climbed the 299 steps of the Petrin Tower in Prague – her most daunting dare to date. She said. “I had to climb up slippery wooded steps and it was windy. I tried to turn around and go back down about three-quarters up, but there were people behind me and I couldn't.”

On a stranger note, Nicola has taken part in an 'ecstatic dancing' session and visited a museum dedicated to the history of sex toys. She has created a page on the Just Giving website and is posting updates – including photographic evidence of competed tasks – on Twitter.

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Nicola is now in Germany for a few days and is open to suggestions for challenges here, which she will do her best to complete. She’s undecided where to head next but will let people know via Twitter, before returning home to Leicester’s West End on 12 December.

She said: “I was too scared to travel alone and I’m scared of heights, so this has been good for me as well as the people I’ll care for in the future. It has also been nice to have a connection back home – it has mostly been a holiday but the challenges have kept me on my toes.”

Reflecting on her time at DMU, she said: “I’d wanted to do the Learning Disability Nursing course for a few years but I had to pluck up the courage. I had anxiety disorder for a while, so I talked myself out it, thinking I wouldn’t be good enough. But the lecturers, my fellow students and the nurses and people I met on placements were all brilliant. The whole experience was really good and I’m so glad I did it.”

Nicola wants to raise as much money as possible for Mencap. She said: “They are the leading voice of people with learning disabilities and work with them to help change laws and challenge prejudice. They raise awareness of the inequalities in the healthcare service and I am passionate about this.”

To set Nicola a challenge search Twitter for , and to make a donation visit her .