A BROMSGROVE man and his two friends are planning to drive across the world in a 1999 Toyota Yaris to raise money for charity.
The trip of a lifetime is being organised by George Goucher, from Bromsgrove, and his two pals Rupert Harris and Jake Dixon – all aged 22.
The group chose ‘Around the World in 998cc’ as their team name and will battle against hundreds of others when they take on the 2018 ‘Mongol Rally’.
George said: “We intend to start in Bromsgrove on July 12 and finish in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
“I believe we will be heading through 20 different countries before we reach the finish.
“I’m really excited because we have been waiting to do this for a few years but we haven’t had the budget or time before.
“Luckily we are all set to go now but we did run into a few problems that almost jeopardised the entire thing.”
Originally the boys had purchased a £200 car with an unknown service history, 173,000 miles on the clock, dubious repair jobs and a lot of rust to boot.
Disaster struck when, with just four weeks until the trip, the car needed an urgent repair which would cost £1,500 or more.
That was more than the car was worth and so together they decided it needed to be scrapped, leaving them without transport.
Fortunately Toyota Jemca in Reading, now the team’s main sponsor, stepped in and offered a second-hand Yaris to ensure the extraordinary adventure could continue.
Toyota also made sure the car was serviced and had the outer-body designed.
“Now that we feel ready, we are looking forward to raising money for three fantastic charities – Cool Earth, Spokes and The Nathan Tomkins Trust,” said George.
The Nathan Tomkins Trust is a mental health charity set up last year in memory of Nathan Tomkins who sadly took his own life at the age of 22 on Christmas Eve 2016 after a long battle with depression and anxiety.
Spokes is a small local charity aimed at helping young individuals with learning disabilities to be able to find and remain in employment.
Cool Earth works to halt deforestation for the Rainforest communities.
Rupert added: “We are aiming to raise a minimum of £1,000 to be equally split between the charities and we would appreciate any contribution to reach our goal.
“All of the donations will go to the charities and nothing will go towards our trip – we are funding that ourselves.”
The team are aiming to finish the trip within six weeks.
Visit https://mydonate.bt.com/teams/aroundtheworldin998ccs for more information and to sponsor the team.
