A team from Ellesmere Port are preparing to drive a £600 Vauxhall Astra more than 1,500 miles to Benidorm as part of a six-day fundraising road challenge.
The group will set off from Ellesmere Port on August 31 for the Rat Run, a road adventure that will take teams across Europe before reaching Benidorm, Spain, on September 5.
There is, however, one significant challenge — they will be attempting the entire journey in a 2009 Vauxhall Astra worth just £600.
Inspired by the spirit of motoring programmes such as Top Gear, the Rat Run will see teams face a series of challenges along the route as they make their way from Cheshire to the Spanish coast.
Organisers say the event is designed to bring people together, with participants beginning the challenge as strangers and, they hope, finishing it as friends.
For the Ellesmere Port team, the journey also has a much more important purpose.
They will be using the 1,500-mile challenge to raise money for Kole’s Fight, a fundraising campaign supporting two-year-old Kole, who has Sanfilippo syndrome, a rare genetic condition sometimes referred to as childhood dementia.
Kole’s family is seeking to raise £2 million towards treatment in America and says time is an important factor in accessing potential treatment while he is still young.
The Ellesmere Port team hopes its journey across Europe will help raise both funds and awareness for the campaign.
Setting off from their home town in a car worth considerably less than many people’s annual insurance bill, the group now faces six days on the road and hundreds of miles between them and the finish line in Benidorm.
Whether the £600 Astra will make it all the way remains part of the challenge.
But for the team taking part, getting to Spain is only one measure of success — raising as much money and awareness as possible for Kole’s Fight is the reason behind the journey.
Contact Jake Cliff, Kole’s Fight Volunteer, jakecliff18@gmail.com.
