Lauren was 10 days old and fast asleep when the audiologist took a drum and banged it as hard as he could next to her.  She did not flinch and it was then that it was confirmed that Lauren was born profoundly deaf.  That is a moment that my wife Jacqui and I will never forget.  We were just trying to get used to having a newborn baby when we were told this shattering news, and a real sense of shock, fear,and bewilderment descended over us.  Whilst we reminded ourselves that there are other people out there with far worse situations to cope with, we could not help but be devastated by this news.

That said, Jacqui and I are not the kind of people who sit on our backsides and wait for the world to come to us. Once over the initial shock we were determined to ensure Lauren has every opportunity in life despite her disability.  We were introduced to a superb centre for deaf and hard of hearing children where we could get the expert assistance that Lauren and we needed.

Auditory Verbal UK is a national charity which teaches deaf babies and children to listen and speak using Auditory Verbal Therapy, so that they can achieve their potential in life.  Run by an incredible team of experts in this field, they offer tailor-made therapy for each child and family depending on their needs.  Lauren's first appointment was when she was just 10 weeks old and she had fortnightly sessions until the age of 3 when she 'graduated from the centre. Jacqui and I beleive that Lauren's incredible progress has a lot to do with attending the AV sessions. More information about AVUK can be found at www.avuk.org

My wife and I are grateful for everything this charity has provided both in terms of their professional and emotional support and we want to give them something back.  This brings me neatly onto my charity challenge - the Ramshackle Rally!

For those that know me, I am a self confessed car-nut! If it has four wheels, some seats, runs on petrol then the chances are I will know something about it.  So I thought why not combine my passion with raising some money for charity.  Before you think I will simply be driving from A to B in a comfortable motorway cruiser, the Ramshackle Rally challenge is to drive from London to Valencia, Spain (2000km) in a car that costs no more than £150 (must be MOT'd and taxed).  In this Top Gear'esque challenge my co-drivers are two long-time buddies and car enthusiasts  Ashley 'funny boy, funny feet' Winston and Lee 'I can fly a stunt kite' Berridge.  We pride ourselves on being a team with huge enthusiasm but very little competence...our wives all raised their eyebrows then groaned when we told them what we are doing! (www.ramshacklerally.com)

We sourced a Peugeot 405 estate that has done quite a few miles on ebay (nearly 200,000) and when we told the seller what we were doing, he VERY kindly gave the car to us gratis as his contribution to the challenge. Mark, thank you once again.

We set of on August 20th for 4 days of driving, breaking down, criss-crossing through France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain until we reach Valencia.  The objective is to help other cars on the rally if they break down and vise versa and we will be set a number of challenges along the way...should be a lot of fun, I just hope that our european breakdown cover is comprehensive!  We will be keeping a blog of our progress and of course the more money we can ran raise for AVUK the better!

Please donate as much or as little as you can, it all adds up.  If any other families out there benefit half as much from this incredible charity as we have then that would be a wonderful thing.

Thanks very much for reading.

David