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Bruce Haxton raised £14,246 from 210 supporters

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Closed 29/07/2021

0%
£14,246
raised of £16,000 target by 210 supporters

    Weʼve raised £14,246 to help feed a group of 8 beautiful elephants in Mae Wang, Northern Thailand.

    Funded on Thursday, 29th July 2021

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    Story

    Middle-aged man aims to cycle 2,300km in 40C heat through Northern and North Eastern Thailand to raise enough money to feed a small family of elephants for 3 months!

    MaeVang Elephant Home, nestled in the beautiful district of Mae Wang in Northern Thailand, is a fantastic small organisation that has been looking after its family of 8 elephants for many years. They allow small private groups of visitors to learn about and experience first hand the real beauty of these wonderful animals and, at the same time care for their animals and the mahouts (the people who spend all their lives with elephants looking after them) and their families who live with the elephants.

    However, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic Thailand has in effect shut its borders and the Elephant Home has had no visitors and therefore no income to feed their elephants. And boy do elephants eat a lot (around 15-20% of their body weight each day) and the home of course needs to ensure that the elephants continue to receive a healthy and rich variety of food every day. They've dug deep to ensure they can continue to look after their elephants (and the mahouts) but as the pandemic has gone on and on this has become more and more difficult, verging towards the impossible

    So, Bruce Haxton (me!), the founder of The Tuk Tuk Club, who have been lucky enough to have our travellers visit the elephants on our adventures in Northern Thailand, has decided that it's time to get off his backside and do something to help.

    Bruce is going to cycle solo over 2,300km's starting in May 2021 in 20 days (from Chiang Mai to Ubon Ratchathani in the far East of Thailand and back - a mere 121km per day factoring in one rest day to ease the saddle sores) during the height of Thailand's summer (think 40C - no fun at all) with the goal of raising at least enough money to feed the group of 8 elephants and their mahouts for 3 months, easing some of the pressure on the organisation and making sure that they know people not only in Thailand but around the world really care!

    It costs around £22 a day to feed and look after each elephant. So with 8 elephants at the home they need over £5,000 a month just to make sure the elephants are well fed, safe and cared for and that the mahouts can also live! My goal is therefore to raise enough money to cover 3 months of food and care for the elephants If I can raise more than three months worth of food, fantastic but raising less is simply not an option!

    Many thanks for your support for this cause - if you've been lucky enough to visit MaeVang Elephant Home you'll know why I'm so passionate about this. If you haven't then please know that these are wonderful elephants looked after by fantastic people. They've not complained once during the pandemic and have stoically coped with all the challenges thrown at them. And of course, once Thailand is open again I hope you'll be able to travel to Chiang Mai to see this small family of elephants yourself.

    And finally, as an added bonus!, there's something for you too. We'd love you to see these elephants for yourself on one of our Tuk Tuk Adventures and to make that easier we'll take off the amount you donate (up to a maximum of £150 per person) from any future booking for an 11 Day Tuk Tuk Adventure. You can see more about the adventures here

    Updates

    1

    • Bruce Haxton3 years ago
      Bruce Haxton

      Bruce Haxton

      3 years ago

      Absolutely amazing to have reached just under £11,000 already and 67% of our the target that will allow us to support the elephants for at least 3 months. Huge thanks to everyone who supported this effort and everyone associated with the elephants is blown away by your generosity My ride is still due to start in May but we're in the middle of a little COVID crisis in Thailand at the moment so I need to wait just a little while until all the provinces I'm cycling through are open! Thanks again for your amazing support - hugely appreciated

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    3 years ago

    Bruce Haxton started crowdfunding

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    Page last updated on: 7/19/2021 01.19

    Supporters

    210

    • Clive Thomas

      Clive Thomas

      Jul 19, 2021

      Great work Bruce

      £100.00

    • Juliet Reed

      Juliet Reed

      Jul 15, 2021

      Great cause helping these beautiful animals, well done!

      £10.00

    • Rob & Julia Holmes

      Rob & Julia Holmes

      Jul 7, 2021

      Well done to "Different Travel" for promoting this and good luck to the organisers in reaching your target.

      £100.00

    • Simon Martin

      Simon Martin

      Jul 7, 2021

      Awesome Bruce, it was a pleasure to ride next to you on your last day of your riding journey, I hope to ride again with you in the future.

      £40.00

    • John& Sally Ragan

      John& Sally Ragan

      Jun 30, 2021

      A really good cause proud to help!

      £30.00

    • Sheila Ridgeon

      Sheila Ridgeon

      Jun 25, 2021

      It’s a privilege to help my favourite animals

    • Roy Cavanagh

      Roy Cavanagh

      Jun 25, 2021

      I take my hat off to you, Bruce. That is one tough challenge and a brilliant thing to do for MaeVang.

      £50.00

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    About Crowdfunding
    About the fundraiser
    Bruce Haxton

    Bruce Haxton

    I'm passionate about Thailand, passionate about adventure travel, passionate about elephants and I'm about to discover if I really do have the same passion for cycling and lycra! Please help me help the wonderful elephants of MaeVang - and make the saddle sores worthwhile...

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