WHAT ARE WE DOING:-

Four Yorkshire men, one banger, five days, six countries, and 3,500 miles … Top Gear meets Wacky Races (maybe even Hangover!!)

 

It’s called the Ramshackle Rally and it takes place every year for fun and to raise money for various charities with around 30-40 cars.

 

The rules of the Ramshackle Rally are that your car can’t cost more than £200 and you have to pick a theme to decorate your car. It’s not a race it’s about getting you and your car to the finish in Munich 5 days later.

 

Our car is a P Reg 1996 17 year old Volvo V40 which cost us £160 – with no reverse which should result in some very tactical parking.

 

We have fully decorated the car as a Caribbean Beach Bar with a Bamboo pitched roof and Bamboo down the side a bar on both sides with cocktail glasses screwed down along with multi coloured garlands everywhere.

 

We will be Yorkshire’s answer to the ‘Beach Boys’ There are 4 of us in the car, Graham Wilson who sourced the car (One Simple Task), Richard Bond who is the oldest of us at 55 was in charge of booking the accommodation and crossings and Adrian Paul the Mechanic and in charge of the music play list. However his total love of Simple Red may wear thin over 5 days. Plus myself in charge of the fund raising.

 

The route is basically that we start in Calais – so just getting to the start will be a major achievement for us.

 

Day 1 - Calais to Annecy in France

Day 2 – Annecy to Bormio in Italy                         

Day 3 – Bormio to Innsbruck in Austria

Day 4 – Innsbruck to Ljubljana in Slovenia via Italy

Day 5 – Ljubljana to Munich in Germany

 

Over 3,500 miles which will include some of the best driving roads in Europe and as seen on Top Gear and TV car adverts, like the Bernards Pass in Italy and Stelvio Pass in Austria etc

 

Incredible roads which are just ribbons of tarmac going up and over the Alps.

 

WHY ARE WE DOING IT:-

 

At 6 months old my son James was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer and given two weeks to live.

 

He had just had one of his injections and we noticed his leg was paralysed; it was just hanging there as he lay on his back under his activity centre.  At first we thought it was something to do with the injection.  But of course, it wasn’t.

 

James was taken into hospital where a large tumour in the pelvic region was diagnosed. The biopsy sadly confirmed it was cancer.

 

However, as there had only been 6 cases in the last 10 years they were unsure what recipe of drugs should form the chemotherapy.

They were in contact with a Consultant from America and one from Europe to collate as much information as possible.

 

As parents you can’t take it all in and when we were both sat down in a quiet room to be told by the Consultants that your little Baby has 2 weeks to live we both fell apart.  They told us that the cancer had spread to over 60% of his pelvic area and they were going to try a special chemo in the hope it would first stop the growth and then start reducing it in size.

 

We started the Chemo straight away at Newcastle RVI.  What an incredible team of people they were, led by Professor Alan Craft (now Sir).  I cannot speak more highly of them just, amazing people.

 

The RVI hospital was an old Victorian hospital and the Cancer ward had certainly seen better days.  Not that it mattered as all material thoughts had left you, it just didn’t matter anymore.  The only thing that mattered was wanting your son to live.  You just wanted to take his place so he would have his life ahead of him.  We were like all parents and when it comes down to the very basics you just want to protect them and love them.

 

The ward consisted of 6 beds on the left and 6 beds on the right with a chair next to each bed where one of the parents would sleep next to their child.  There was one very small toilet and sink where all the parents would wash each day.  I managed to get two weeks off work (things are a lot better now regarding compassionate leave thank goodness).  One thing that stuck in my mind was that all the Chemo machines that these young children were wired up too had been donated or sponsored by companies or charities. This showed how much they relied on the generosity of individuals and companies and still do.

 

After 2 weeks I had to go back to work so this left Debbie my wife with James in Newcastle and myself and Samantha (age 2) in Darlington.  Debbie’s Mum Hilly came down to Darlington to help look after Samantha as I had to work away a lot.  The routine for Debs and James was 2 weeks of chemo at the RVI then home for a week IF you managed to stay clear of an infection which was so easy for James to catch with his immunity so low just after the chemo.  You couldn’t really go near other children or people, it just wasn’t worth it and those few days as a family were so precious.

 

When James was home we had to flush his lines.  This is two plastic tubes coming out of his chest where they feed the chemo into his body, so it’s very important that these are kept sterile and flushed through regularly to stop them blocking up.  This was an emotional time as one of us had to hold James down so he wouldn’t pull his lines out and the other person would draw up various syringes to flush the lines with both of us wearing masks and surgical gloves.  The whole process could take over an hour each time.

 

Where possible we included Samantha in everything so she didn’t feel left out or that more love was going to James.  She was a little star and used to help all the time and loved looking after James and to this day they are extremely close and the very best of friends.

 

James vomited all the time for over a year of treatment.  It was very hard work as well as being very emotional.  I don’t know how you cope – something just seems to give you an inner strength.

 

You form a bond and get very close to the other families on the ward as they are one of the few people who truly know what you are going through.  It would break your heart to arrive back at the RVI to find one of the beds empty and to be told that sadly that little Girl or Boy had died.  Things are a lot better than they used to be as back in 1968 a child’s chance of survival would have been only 20% compared to 70%-75% in 1994.  With more money donated to Cancer Research we can help raise this percentage even further.

 

Christmas 1992 (James would be one and a half) and the Chemo was beginning to shrink the tumour and for the first time James was beginning to smile.  He had always been a solemn baby who cried a lot, obviously we now know it was due to the pain, but from that Christmas he giggled non-stop.

 

As the chemo had reduced the cancer they were finally able to operate on him and successfully removed 98% of it.

 

The Consultants said that as the Chemo they had used was experimental they would be unsure of any future side effects and would we be willing for James to have an annual test, the results of which would help other Children in the future - we obviously said yes. (Through other tests in the past they said they had found that in teenage boys the Chemo could make them sterile and now knowing this they are now able to take sperm samples prior to their treatment to enable them to have their own Children should they suffer from that side effect).

 

James is now 21 and has been cancer free for over 20 years. He still laughs a lot, enjoys going to the gym every day and loves life to the full and although we now live in Goldsborough near Knaresborough he is at Uni in Newcastle in his final year to become a Building surveyor……… and Samantha, well she’s now 23 and qualified as a Primary School Teacher, so she never stopped wanting to look after children.

 

I know first-hand the benefits of Cancer Research and with more funding they can do more and hopefully the time will come when no one’s little baby (no matter how old) is taken from them.

 

 

That is why this year three of my best friends and I are raising money for Yorkshire Cancer Research.  We hope to complete the Ramshackle Rally and raise £5,000 for Yorkshire Cancer Research

Please give generously to this very worthy cause.

Remember “Do as much as you can while you can”

 

Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)

 

.........again Thank you so much for donating :-)