Hartwell couple in 96 hour 'Italian Job' styled Rally!

Thanks for taking the time to read our news article.

My work (Andy Strachan) in a bid to raise money and awareness of “The Prostate Cancer Charity”, aim to take 25 Cars (mostly Classic Mini's) on a journey from Keyline Northfleet (Kent) to Turin and back in 96 hours (taking the mountain route!). As we own a classic mini, it would be rude not to enter the challenge!

The Prostate Cancer Charity is the UK’s leading voluntary organisation working with people affected by prostate cancer. Their vision is a world where lives are no longer limited by prostate cancer. They have supported thousands of men affected by prostate cancer and their families. They aim to fight cancer through research, support, information and campaigning.

Hartwell residents Andy Strachan and Emily Crouch, are to leave Dover Ferry Port for 5am on Thursday 23^rd June 2011 and arrive in Turin on the evening of Friday 24^th June 2011. We make our return the following morning where the rally ends in Calais on Sunday 26^th June 2011. Sat Navs are banned for this event! (Not that we own one anyway!)

The rally itself is approximately 1,800 miles in total.  We also have an additional 250 miles round trip from Northampton to and from the start / finish lines. 

We have been told that the drives will be manageable but enduring and we expect four long and hard days driving around 500 miles!

We are to start each day quite early, and the cars are scheduled to arrive at their daily checkpoint destination by around 8pm each evening. If we do breakdown we may not get to the checkpoint for last orders (even on the continent)…….and we doubt of any sympathy from the other rally teams! (We have all seen how the "Top Gear" challenges go!)

Neither of us have ever driven in continental Europe (driving on the other side of the road!) so that's a challenge in itself! Our journey takes us through France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

We had to prepare our cream 1971 Classic Mini Cooper replica for this event and have carried out quite a bit of work. You may have seen us driving it around the village. We are also personally paying out for: Insurance, European Breakdown cover, Fuel (and we all know how the price of that keeps climbing!), Food, Tolls, Fines (hopefully not!) and any other surprises that await us on the trip!

We are looking forward to this event as our Mini will be 40 years old this year (older than either of us!) and it will be a real challenge to get it to Turin and back for its landmark birthday! Especially in a return journey of 96 hours! We hope to give a positive news update of our epic journey upon our return!

If you wish to sponsor Andy and Emily for this event for a worthy cause, please log onto the web adress below:

www.justgiving.com/Andy-and-Emily

Many thanks for your support! Andy Strachan and Emily Crouch!