Yorkshire Rallies Round

Three fantastic fundraising events filled Dave’s home town of Beverley, East Yorkshire last week and the glorious sunshine beamed down on the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation. We are delighted to announce that with thanks to the generosity of everyone who joined in WE HAVE NOW MET OUR TARGET FOR THIS HUGELY IMPORTANT MONGOLIAN CHARITY!

Earlier this month, when golden-hearted Elaine Crompton casually asked ‘well, what can I do to help?’ Dave’s Mum knew she was in the right place at the right time. Elaine runs her own Bliss Therapies and, with the help of her son Joe and friends Nicola and Hetty, the idea of the Pamper Party was hatched. Elaine and Nicola spent the evening tirelessly giving everyone Indian Head massages and manicures, while all the guests ate, drank and were (very) merry at £5 a ticket. Everyone agreed they’d like to join in on the Rally and their extra contributions proved their support.

Bank Holiday Monday gave Dave’s family time to bake, bake and do some more baking for an Open House, and the front and back doors of his house were open to a steady stream of coffee-drinking local well-wishers. The ambulance parked out front generated constant Rally Talk and live demonstrations of the nifty collapsible stretcher were a real hit. Everyone was really impressed by the vehicle (and glad to see how reliable and solid it looks!). Dave’s Dad did the business with the cafetieres, and his sisters Zoë and Grace encouraged neighbours and friends who have known the three of them nearly all their lives to have another brownie, flapjack, cookie, piece of cake or tiffin – and then another! It was great to see so many neighbours and friends, and Dave and his family are grateful to everyone who came.

Luckily, the Communications Office at the Uni of York where Dave’s Mum works enjoys the odd biscuit or two with their tea and coffee, and hovering up the leftovers of the Open House proved no problem for this generous group of colleagues who normally focus only on words. Despite many people being away over half-term, the CNCF collecting tin was heavy at the end of the day, and thanks are due to everyone who contributed.

So many people in the Beverley area have become Rally-conscious that Dave’s family is thinking of setting up a loudspeaker system for regular updates, but until we do that, feel free to sign up to this blog to receive updates of our adventures by email!

Many thanks to Elaine, Nicola, Hetty, Joe, Dave’s Dad, Richard, Zoë, Grace and especially Dave’s Mum, Dodi for all their hard work. The total funds can be viewed in all their glory on our CNCF JustGiving page, and just because we’ve reached our target, don’t feel you can’t still donate!!!!!!

Leaps and Bounds

Some great progress was made last weekend when I bombed up to Sheffield in the ambulance (still no stereo – must get that fixed). After meeting up with my mate Craig, we first picked up some steel plate with which to fashion some kind of rudimentary sump guard before steaming over to Manchester. The mission of the day was to find, among other things, some replacement rear side windows to make life just a little bit more bearable in the back of the van (the prospect of sitting facing backwards and not being able to see out for 10,000 miles over extremely bumpy terrain is not a particularly pleasant one!). We rocked up at Manchester Van Parts and were met by Nathan and David, two extremely helpful guys who immediately busied themselves searching their extensive warehouse full of parts for the bits and pieces on our wish list.

Unfortunately, it turns out the windows in the back of our van are custom made, and if we’re going to replace them it will have to be a custom job – not one to be taken on lightly I think. Hmm. However, we managed to come away with a couple of spare wheels, a replacement rear door window (don’t worry, we will carry the frosted originals to reinstate the van as an ambulance once we reach Mongolia), spare front suspension legs and a bench seat to take the number of passengers in the front up to three. Was a tough call whether to go for the seat with matching upholstery or the one with the extra seatbelt, but in the end we had to take the hit and accept our fashionable misgivings. Amazingly, it will bolt right into the same holes currently occupied by the single passenger seat – couldn’t have planned that one better if we tried!

The lads at Van Parts gave us a good deal on our haul and went a long way towards changing my opinions of Manchester when as we left, one of them reached into his own wallet and pulled out a note for us to put towards our charity, which is now visible on our JustGiving page (I had to promise I wouldn’t spend it down the pub). It was a touching moment, and even prompted me to support Man U in the Champions League final last night – something I once vowed never to do!

A pub lunch and scenic drive later, we arrived at Decathlon where we launched a raid on their camping department. We’re going to sound like the most unfriendly bunch of mates here, but it was previously decided that we’d be better off having a tent each for the trip, so I loaded Craig up with 5 small pop up tents. ‘Unfortunately’ there were only 4 sensible colours so I got one each of them and was ‘forced’ to purchase a bright pink flowery special edition, which after a race to the ‘shotgun not’ text vote, is going to be Sly’s for a month. Hahaha.

Anyways, plenty of other camping gear was bought and without prompting, one of Decathlon’s staff who was a bit intrigued in my purchases offered us a decent discount as it’s for charity. Good lad.

I’ve waffled too much as usual, but many thanks have to go to Craig for putting up with endless rally chat and for generally being a big help and a top bloke. Also to Rich ‘Daddy’ Dunning for providing a bed for the night and Clare for providing a moment of chill in a pretty hectic day! Finally, huge thanks to Pod of Psi Phi fame and Electromusic of Doncaster, who have donated five rolls of gaffer tape. I have the sneaky feeling that we’re all going to be held together with the stuff by the end of the trip. Cheers mate.

Watch out for some more charity news to be posted soon!

Dave.

Rule Britannia

The Douglas Car wishes to sincerely thank our latest corporate sponsors, Britannia Petroleum and Britannia Tea Co. Ltd. They have given us our largest donation to date, and in doing so have really helped us on the way to our fundraising target of £10,000 for Helen and Douglas House.

The sponsorship comes as a continuation from my school days, when another of the group's companies, Zeefax, sponsored our home shirt for our Sunday league football team. The red, white and blues of Britannia Petroleum and the green hues of Britannia Tea will complement the current ambulance livery brilliantly. We aim to carry their names around our remaining stops in England and then on the rally itself with pride.

In the current economic climate even the best of wishers have sometimes been unable to do so monetarily. So a huge thanks are due to Mr. Reza Beyad and colleagues for enabling us to continue in our quest.

Britannia Petroleum are manufacturers of AC and DC SCR Drilling SCR systems for onshore and offshore rigs, and platforms.

Britannia Tea Co. Ltd. imports the finest tea from India, Sri Lanka and Kenya.