Times website editor Louise March meets sailing heroine Ellen MacArthur.

A Hillingdon retail park is not the first place you'd imagine finding a sailing heroine. But crowds turned out in force at Yeading's B&Q Warehouse clutching their books and cameras, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ellen MacArthur and to ask her a few questions.

Ellen MacArthur sailed into the record books this year by becoming the fastest person to sail solo around the world. Her fantastic achievement has led to her breaking a new record last week she became the youngest person to be given a damehood.

Two weeks ago, Ellen came to Yeading to meet her fans, sign autographs and to raise money for her charity, the Ellen MacArthur Trust. It was her fourth B&Q appearance since her return. "The appearances are part of my job," she told the Times. "Our sport would not exist without sponsorship. Plus, the B&Q employees feel very much a part of the whole team, because they are."

She was pleased with the turnout. "You hope for a mixture, different ages, races, a good cross section that the project has communicated to. If I got one type of person I would be very worried."

Ellen's achievement has given a lot of inspiration to many, she was recently named in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world.

She said "I never try to force a message on anyone. The biggest thing that I really feel is if you really set your mind on something that there is a chance it could happen. Don't expect it to be easy but it can be possible."

It took two and a half years to build the multihulled boat which would take Ellen 27,000 miles around the globe in 71 days. "I followed the build process and saw her every month. We shipped a whole container of B&Q tools to Australia to help build her."

Whilst onboard there was trouble with the generator which Ellen fixed, without it the challenge would have been over.

"The generator charges the batteries so if you've got no generator you don't have anything, no auto pilot, no weather information, you have nothing." she said. Ellen explained the danger of losing all her audio and navigational equipment.

"I would have had no contact and would have had to try and sail the boat somehow into port. I would have had to take the sails down. On an older boat it would have been ok but this boat is a multihull which would be going too fast and the consequences of it going wrong could have resulted in a capsize."

Ellen forgot to take most of her CDs with her but she said "I just found I was so stressed all the time I couldn't deal with music anyway. It was that feeling you get when you wake up in the morning and you have an exam, you feel horrible, you don't want to eat. It's like that every day."

The Ellen MacArthur Trust aims to support, empower and enliven children suffering from cancer or leukaemia, by introducing them to the joys of sailing on the sea. It was Ellen's idea to start the charity.

"The kids are amazing. I learn so much from them," she added.

For more information on the Ellen MacArthur charity visit www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org/