The world's their oyster for adventurous Lee and Lucy

COUPLE SELL ALMOST EVERYTHING TO EXPLORE THE PLANET

- BY LAYCIE BECK

A LINCOLNSHIRE couple have sold almost everything they own to travel the world after deciding they “can’t take a single moment for granted.”

Husband and wife, Lucy Barton and Lee Mandzij, had always planned on travelling when they retired, but as the retirement age kept increasing they found their dream was “becoming increasingly unfeasible”.

Lucy, 44, also developed several chronic illnesses in 2018, which she says left her unable to hike or have a social life for some time.

She said: “It really made us evaluate what was important to us and that we can’t take a single moment for granted. We decided that we could always make more money, but not more time. And time and memories were really the most important things to us.”

At that point the couple had three dogs and a cat, and decided that they would not be leaving their pets, and so planned to travel after they had lost them.

In August 2023 they lost their last dog and said “the house was no longer a home without our girls, so now was the time.”

Lucy, who is a registered veterinary nurse, said: “We decided that we wanted to travel the world, hiking and also volunteering at animal sanctuaries along the way.