A FORMER Oxford youth worker has been battling extreme heat to make it into the final stages of one of the world’s toughest motorbike rallies.

Her home county may be freezing, but Wheatley’s Tamsin Jones has been braving 45C heat in South America and made it through seven stages of the notoriously tough 14-day Dakar Rally.

The 9,000km rally, which began on New Year’s Day, is usually held in Africa but it became too dangerous to ride the original route from Paris to the Senegalese capital.

The race was moved to Argentina and Chile in 2008 following terrorist threats, and stayed in South America for this year’s event.

Miss Jones, 37, is the youngest British woman to compete in the challenge, and has overcome major technical problems during the rally.

In the first seven days, her fuel line split, causing her to lose most of her fuel, her navigation system broke, and her lights had to be fixed.

Out of the five British participants to start in the bike category, there are only three left – Craig Bounds, Paul Carlyle and Miss Jones, who is riding a Yamaha 450 WR.

Miss Jones has been receiving messages of support on a motorsport website and managed to reply to them during a rest day on Saturday.

She wrote: “Your support is really keeping me going. It’s been a really tough race for me so far, with loads of mechanical problems, but that’s the Dakar.”

Miss Jones worked as a youth worker at Trax – the Oxford-based charity offering courses in mechanics and other life skills to young people – between 2000 and 2004.

The former Wheatley Park School pupil left to pursue her career in rallying but continued to fundraise for the charity while she trained.

She is taking part in the rally to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society.

Her cousin Simon Wharton, from Headington, said the family was watching the Dakar Rally website each day for news.

He said: “We are all very anxious. We can track it on the site, but if she doesn’t reach a point we all get quite worried.

“She is up against some of the best people in the world and she is doing really well, but it is absolutely gruelling.

“She has time to eat and sleep each night, and that’s about it.

“I can tell you that all Tamsin’s family and friends are willing her on to the end.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk