Three years of actual time, but I seemed to have aged ten
years, undertaking the Ultimate
Challenge so far. I say so far, because we've still got the film to
complete. I first thought of the idea September 2010 and actually
arrived home having completed the journey 29th August
2013.
The project involved quite a lot of people, the home team, the
road team (those who did the actual driving), our sponsors,
supporters and well-wishers. Everybody played their part and
contributed to its success. I saw my part in the preparation stages,
as driving the project forward and keeping momentum going, equally
important for me personally was to remain adamant that I would drive
the entire journey myself, irrespective what format the project took.
I was to find out soon enough that there were people who thought what
I was proposing was crazy at my age. All that did was to make me
more determined.
2010 proved to be a challenging time to
try to put a fund raising charity project together. The country was
in recession and the public was being sucked dry of what money they
had by high profile fund raising charities wanting their piece of the
action. It was clear to me that it would be a struggle financially
from the outset. If I was to rely on donations to fund the project it
would take for ever to raise enough money to get started. I thought
long and hard about the financial aspect of the project, the first of
many obstacles I needed to overcome. I had to find a solution
to this problem and at the same time give the public confidence
enough to support us. I had a word with my wife Vi about the problem.
We are not rich by today's standard but we have enough plus a bit
extra so we were comfortable. I think I mentioned previously we lost
our son, Lee, to cancer on June 4th 2008. We suffered our
loss like any parents would, so to soften it a bit we agreed to start
the project by making available up to £50,000 in memory of our son.
We also wanted send a message to the effect that I was serious and
committed to see the project through to the end. I am not trying to
be boastful or big headed by the fact that we made such a
contribution, but I wanted it out in the open as to how the financial
structure came together before departure.
The other issue that needed to be
considered, was how the public would view a group of old guys in
their seventies driving around the world for charity. To ensure the
project was not seen as a jolly for the boys, I made it clear that
everybody taking part as road crew, those doing the actual driving,
would pay all their own costs. I arrived at the final cost later on
during the preparation, but for the record I worked it out on the
assumption that there will be a road crew of eight plus myself and a
cameraman. Briefly it worked out that the journey would be in four
stages, the cost to participate would depend on how many days the
stage lasted. For example, if stage one was twenty days, the
contribution would be £5,000 and if stage four was thirty days would
come to £6,000. If all went according to plan we would have £46,000
plus part of the money from my contribution which meant that we had
around £60,000. The cost of the cameraman would be covered by
myself on the assumption that it would be recovered when the film was
sold. So six months before departure day it wasn’t looking too bad.
The period leading up to departure day
focussed on bringing everybody together. Crew training, acquiring
equipment, talking to possible sponsors, documentation and visas,
injections and medical checks, and anything else that needed to be
dealt with. Throughout the time leading up to departure there were
regular meetings with everyone involved to deal with all aspects of
the project and in particular the project's finances and the crew
contribution. So at that point every one of us knew what the
financial commitment would be for anyone taking part. Departure date
was set provisionally for the end of April, 2013. About six months
before departure day little things began to happen that gave me cause
for concern. It began with one of the team pulling out due to
medical reasons, others who had expressed interest in the early days
were no longer available. Another member who joined us late in the
programme had to pull out as his financial circumstances changed. It
was becoming a nightmare. Out of the original eight plus myself we
were down to four, and it didn’t end there. I needed to do
something drastic if the whole thing wasn’t going to fall down
around me.
I put an advertisement in the local
paper and was pleasantly surprised to get a phone call. We were back
up to five. Realising that we needed crew, he said that he had a
friend who would like to join us. We were back up to six. At this
stage four of us had committed to pay our contributions at the price
agreed, however in subsequent meetings when I raised the issue of the
other two paying their contribution it seemed to fall on deaf ears.
This situation continued up to about six weeks before departure date
which had now been set for the March 31st. We had a
meeting organised and I had to face up to the possibility of bringing
the situation to a head, what I wasn’t prepared for was what
actually happened …... to be continued
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