 09-30-2007, 14:41
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cranwellpoacher
Joined on 07-03-2007
Posts 7
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![Automobile [au]](/emoticons/emotion-34.gif)
Roc Around the Clock 4 Leukaemia Research...the result !
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Roc Around the Clock 4 Leukaemia.24th August 2007
"It's going to be like the LeMans 24 hour race...but with a few more pitsips and a lot less glamour!”This was the description of my harebrained idea that I offered to Teresa my wife in late June 2007 and the rest as they say is history!
Roc Around the Clock was a slightly off beat fundraising event that really came about quite by accident, and I believe perhaps a little bit of fate thrown in for good measure.
Our journey into raising money for Leukaemia Research began about 10 months after I had been myself diagnosed with CLL, a chronic form of the disease after I had visited my GP (on Teresa's insistence !) due to feeling a little "off colour" for a few weeks. After several weeks of blood tests I was finally told that I had Leukaemia on 15th August 2006, a day that will always be significant in the history of me! I remember the consultant sitting me down and after a brief "beat about the bush" he announced the results of the protracted tests...and my world suddenly became a whole lot more complicated in the blink of an eye.
I remember thinking to myself "hang on, this isn't in the script!”I asked many questions, received many answers, but to be honest the pure shock and surprise of the diagnosis caused most of them to sail over my head without me having a chance to really registering them.
More blood tests, chest X-Rays and weight checks came along at regular intervals for the next few months, and around about the end of January 2007 I decided to try to recapture some of my lost youth...well my late twenties anyway! by purchasing a VW Scirocco. I bought myself a 1992 model from a guy on the Scirocco Register website (via EBay !), and after a little TLC was carried out I used it as my daily driver too and from Kings Mill Hospital were I work as a medical engineer.
Fast forward now to May the same year and I decided to try and help raise money for LR and as such I had thought of a few interesting ways of going about it, some completely mad, some expensive and impractical (the standard car to electric car conversion!), and it was during a browse on the owners club website that I spotted another Scirocco for sale in Leicester.
"1987 Paprika Red VW Scirocco for sale, needs to go ASAP, short tax, test until September”. I phoned Steve (the owner) and asked if he would take £100 for the car, he agreed and so that weekend I trogged off with entire family in tow to fetch the car.
When I first saw "Scarlet" as she became fondly named, she was looking very sorry for herself. Faded paintwork, filthy wheels, dead battery, and no water in the radiator and (after eventually getting her started!) a major fuel leak was identified...well you couldn't really miss a gallon of unleaded pouring onto the pavement!
We got her back to Sleaford later that day, with the unexpected bonus of having been given the car for free by Steve after he had asked our intended use of her, and then telling us that his daughter had been diagnosed with childhood leukaemia 20 years previously at the age of three. She was now fine and aged 23 which meant that her diagnosis had been made the same year as Scarlet was built! Fate? perhaps !.
The next few months leading up to our challenge consisted of visiting companies and individuals to seek the much needed sponsorship that the event would require. During one such visit I had been asked the name of the event, and had answered with the first title that came to me..."Roc Around the Clock", a 20 year old VW Scirocco travelling to as many hospitals as possible within 24 hours !....well I thought it was catchy anyway, so the title stuck !.
A local fella called Lee did a fantastic job of applying a quite excellent logo to the car (free of charge!) that was designed by Glenn, a friend of mine from the Scirocco Register. Another enthusiast Peter gave myself and Teresa a T-Shirt each that was printed with the same logo and by now we were starting to look very slick !.A local garage helped with a couple of mechanical issues on the car, another paid to have it's name on the bonnet and rear bumper, and a third, a VW dealership paid for our fuel in return for it's name being applied to the doors and boot...result !.
Another issue was to get publicity for the event, so it was with that in mind that I spent many eye straining hours peering at my laptop writing blogs, setting up a webpage, emailing possible sponsors and posting video logs of our progress on sites such as Youtube.Having emailed several radio stations I also managed to get mentions on several local stations around our area including interviews with BBC Radio Lincolnshire,BBC Radio Nottingham, Mansfield 103.2 and Real Radio FM.Our story was covered by 4 local newspapers and the RAF news, and we attracted support from both Holland and Belgium via the Scirocco owners clubs in those countries (£150 was donated by the Dutch to our event when we met them at Beaulieu in September !).
The event itself seemed to be upon us in no time, and so after saying our goodbyes and kisses to our 3 children, Teresa and I set off to travel to the start point of the adventure, the Kings Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire. We were met by about two dozen people, mostly workmates, but some members of the local press and radio who wanted to speak to us before we set off, which was at exactly 09.30 on Friday 24th August. To name all the 35 hospitals would take some time to do, so lets just say that we managed to get to about 28 in the Midlands before we pointed Scarlet’s nose down the M40 and set off for a pre arranged rendezvous with some friends down in Kent who had offered to guide us around more hospitals when we hit their "patch". I would like to reflect on all the heart stopping moments that we had whilst undertaking the drive, but to be honest it was pretty much an uneventful 24 hours !.Although that is not in this case a bad thing. Scarlet performed faultlessly throughout, never missed a beat, never overheated (not even on the M25 at 4 Mph!), returned approx 40 Mpg fuel economy and carried us safely and soundly through the day, into the night and together we welcomed the sunrise of the brand new day on Saturday morning.....not bad for a car that at 20 years old and sitting at the side of the road only a few months earlier had faced the real possibility of ending up in a breakers yard!.
So to sum up, we drove 672 miles in 24 hours, visited 35 hospitals ending up in Kent and thanks to the generosity of workmates, friends, family and local businesses we managed to raise £1350 for a very worthy charity...not bad for a first attempt :-)
Scarlet is now off of the road, her MOT expired in September, and so she is having a well earned rest from her fundraising efforts !, and me ?...well I am planning my "next big thing" for 2008, possibly a trip to Europe, maybe a flight over to Canada to drive the Trans Canada Highway which, at 4860 miles is the longest in the world !, or perhaps I may get to do my electric car conversion after all, someone told me the hospital is scrapping a couple of milk floats soon, so perhaps I should change my name to Ernie and see just how fast a milk cart can go...when it's shaped like a Scirocco !
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