Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As some of you will know, my younger sister died in May last year of a misdiagnosed melanoma. It started under her big toe and ended up in her brain, and killed her very quickly indeed.  She left behind a wonderful husband and three lovely young teenage girls.  

The cancer spread so fast that I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her properly, and so in her memory, and to raise awareness of the dangers of melanomas, I - and two equally unhinged friends, Rodger Williams and Peter Martin - have decided to raise £100,000 for MASScot by taking part in the 2014 Mongol Rally.

The Mongol Rally takes place annually between the UK and Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia.  It’s a three week, eight thousand mile drive, across inhospitable terrain, along some of the worst roads in the world….and all in a car which has an engine no bigger than 1L. And they don't like you to take a 4WD car either (not that that would make much of a difference in a 1L car…). 

Our route will take us through Europe, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, across the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and then - finally - Mongolia.  We expect to complete it in three weeks.  And while it will be ‘epic’ in the true sense of the word, it will also be bloody hard work.

The charity we are raising money for is a small Scottish cancer charity, based in Glasgow, called ‘Melanoma Action and Support Scotland’ a.k.a. ‘MASScot’.  They were, and continue to be, hugely supportive of my sisters family through these very difficult times. 

All money raised through donations and sponsorship will go directly to the charity. All costs will be covered by the three of us.

Can I ask you therefore to dig deep and support something that is very close to my heart and in a very good cause.

You can read more about The Mongol Rally here: http://www.theadventurists.com/the-adventures/mongol-rally

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thank you all for reading this.

best regards

Steve