Terry and I would both like to thank each and every one of you that helped us towards our target in the 2008 rally.

We set ourselves a target of £3000 from donations, a target which sadly we did not reach. We did however raise £2600 from your donations and a further £1050 from the sale of The Italian Job National raffle tickets, making a total of
£3650. This is a total that we as a team are very happy with.

The 2008 rally was, I cannot deny, going to be a jolly for two life long friends to cane my late mums mini around europe under the guise of raising funds for children that have nothing. However, the "do gooder" bit was ever only on paper, by that
I mean it never seemed real, it was a tool for extracting money. But oh what strange games life can play on you.

It was when we saw the "real face" of what we were doing that changed my life for ever. The children from The Casa Oz childrens home in Turin and their carers reduced me to tears.  I could not cope with the emotion I felt and knew at that very moment I had to do this again. Perhaps not the actual rally but support the Kidsout charity and the great work they do.

As it turns out we are doing the rally again but this time with the working knowledge of what and why we are doing it.

Before moving on to the history for those who do not know about us and the car I/we would like to pay heartfelt thanks to our 2008 sponsors for the tremendous support they gave before during and after the event:

Lavazza UK

JJ Food Service (Enfield)

La Margherita Restaurant (Southampton)

Binz Limousines (Reading) & Jonathan Terry Funeral Directors (Southampton)

MGS Builders Ltd (Southampton)

Below are some historical details of why we want to support KidsOut. When you have read it we hope you feel that we are worth sponsoring so please dig as deep as you feel you can and sponsor us online.
Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor us:
KidsOut will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift
at no cost to you.

See more of what KidsOut does at www.kidsout.org.uk

In 2004 my (Bob) mother died at the age of 80years. Part of her estate was a 1987 Austin Mini Mayfair. This car had been garaged for three years prior to her death as her health started to fail. When I obtained the car it had only clocked 10800 miles but being a British Leyland car it was pretty much rotted away, so I set about a restoration project, which was completed in August 2007. The car at this time had still only completed a total of 15000 miles in its lifetime, yes, that’s a mere 750 miles per year average.Whats more the longest single journey it had ever done was 40 miles. She performed supurbly on the rally with just one breakdown that was quickly fixed by the fabulous efforts of the support crew.
We are now moving quickly through 2009 and after a 3500 mile trip she is still looking good and running well and eager to get back to Italia.

Many thanks for your support.