Scooter club to ride from UK to Gibraltar in support of charities

Seven members of the ElmValley Scooter Club will set off on a long-distance ride from the UK to Gibraltar this morning 6am [UK time] to raise funds for three charities, including local breast cancer charity Bosom Buddies.

The group - Pat Mulhern, Andy Wally, Dean Howarth, Dave Binns, John Westbroom, Pete Tilley and John Kitchen - includes former armed forces personnel and scooter enthusiasts, who will travel with four vintage scooters, a support van and a camper van.

“A couple of our lads are ex Forces and they wanted to do something different so they said let's ride to Gibraltar,” Mr Howarth told the Chronicle.

“We love to ride our scooters and the older the better and we wanted to take the scooters to another level and hope that others do the same in time to come.”

Setting off from Maggie’s Cafe in South Elmsall, they will make their way towards the Channel Tunnel, avoiding motorways due to their 50mph average speed, and across France, into Spain and down to the Rock covering around 500 miles each day.

“The route has changed several times,” said Mr Howarth, adding no firm decisions have been made yet.

They expect challenges from the weather, maintenance and the physical demands of the journey, but will have a support vehicle, “a great mechanic called Wally”, three spare scooters available in case of mechanical issues and a camper van to rest in, as “none of us are spring chickens”.

The charities they are fundraising for are Bosom Buddies, Mini Marvels in the UK, and the Family Burns Club.

“Bosom Buddies was the chosen chairty for Gibraltar, which is where we are riding to,” said Mr Howarth.

“Mini Marvels is my chosen one because I have a granddaughter who was born premature, she weighed 1lb 10 oz and they looked after her superbly, and now she is just over one year old and perfect in every way.”

“And the other one, Family Burns Club, is because we have members of our club that are ex firemen and firemen still in service.”

The riders plan to share live streams and recordings of their journey and will hold a final celebration when the funds raised are distributed to the charities.

To donate go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/ride-to-the-rock