Alderholt Sports & Social Club will be hosting a 2000 mile Stars Rally in support of our fundraising efforts for Salisbury Stars Appeal Charity. The rally is being organised by club chairman Karl Kirkcaldy, with support from other members of the committee. We have lots of experience of this type of event after winning the 2022 Veterans Banger Rally from Dover to Gibraltar.

At Salisbury District Hospital, 1 in 10 babies are born too small, too sick or too soon and therefore need additional care. The Neonatal Unit (aka NICU or Special Care Baby Unit) provides this to around 250 babies every year. The Stars Appeal works to ensure that babies receive the best possible care using the most advanced equipment, whilst making sure their parents can stay alongside them in dedicated accommodation.

As a club, this is something very close to our heart and we have experienced first hand just how important the Neonatal Unit is after one of our committee members and his Fiancée had their baby girl born 6 weeks premature in November 2023. Thankfully Molly is doing amazingly well and is now home with a very proud mum and dad. She is growing stronger by the day after spending several weeks in the Special Care Baby Unit. Without doubt, some of the help and support provided to Molly and her parents at such a traumatic time can be attributed to the dedication of fundraisers who continue to support the Stars Appeal and we are all extremely grateful to have such an amazing facility on our doorstep. Hence, we want to do our bit!

We want to help the Stars Appeal Charity in raising the £38,000 needed to fund 20 specialist cots for newborn babies on the Labour and Postnatal wards. Each cot costs £1,900 and our target is to fundraise enough money to purchase a specialist cot, which will be given a very special name!

These state-of-the-art cots will benefit over 4,400 local mums and babies each year and provide the best possible equipment for newborn babies. The new cots, which are height adjustable and have drop down sides, will make it much easier and more comfortable for mums to be closer to their babies and enable greater bonding in the first few hours of life.

Our fundraising efforts will focus on our Stars Rally, a strictly non-timed driving event following a specific route starting in Salisbury and finishing in Santander, Spain, visiting 9 countries in 9 days and driving 2000 miles. The rally is broken down into legs, with a mid-way checkpoint during each leg, Along the way there will be challenges to carryout which will equate to points and it is the team who successfully makes it to Santander with the most points who wins the Rally.

We are actively looking for teams to join us and also sponsors to help cover costs associated with the rally. There is no vehicle criteria, other than it is road legal and capable of driving 2000 miles across some of Europe’s most challenging roads, including crossing the Alps and Pyrenees. For sponsorship details or to join us please email alderholtclub@live.co.uk.