EXTROVERT businesswoman Margo Grimshaw is to prove gap years are not just for teenagers and students.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph columnist is preparing for the trip of a lifetime to far-flung countries, including Thailand, Sri Lanka and Singapore, as part of nearly four months of travelling.

But far from stopping in budget accommodation, Margo will stay in luxury hotels...and her famous jewellery is going with her!

Margo's experiences will be captured by the BBC who are making a programme called Adult Gappers on the new trend for more mature people to take gap years.

Margo said: "I saw kids having a gap year and thought I want time off to find the real me. If you are woman you are a sister, a lover, a mother, but what's the real you? But I'll keep my jewellery on! I've worn it everywhere and don't intend to take it off. I don't intend to allow other people to decide what I wear."

Margo made her fortune in pubs and clubs in and around Blackburn, including the legendary Lodestar pub in Ribchester. She has made alternative arrangements for her businesses with family and friends while she is away.

A BBC researcher heard Margo was making the trip and knew she would be colourful enough for the programme. She will jet off to Bangkok from Manchester airport on December 19. She will visit the bridge over the River Kwai, an elephant orphanage, an orphanage for children and a health farm, before travelling to Sri Lanka, India, Dubai, and Pakistan where she will meet relatives of some of her friends from Blackburn.

The film crew, including producer Sarah Hardy, will follow Margo for most of her trip and when they are not there she will use a hand-held camera to capture her experiences.

The series, to be screened in May, follows five other 'adult-gappers' to various parts of the world and Margo hopes her trip will inspire others. She said: "It is always done by 18 year olds before they have started their lives. Perhaps it will be interesting if half-way through life people decided to do it."

Margo's trip starts after completing the Cresta Run taboggan track in Switzerland with the army for the Princes' Trust charity.

And each week Margo will keep Lancashire Evening Telegraph readers up to date with her experiences in her popular column.