MAD (Motocycle Accesories Direct) is Nicholas’ Grandad’s business. He like the rest of the family wanted to support our worthy cause and help to raise some money and so in conjunction with an event planned on Sat 9th June he made it possible for Tom, my mum and myself to go along to the venue - The Academy at Basingstoke with Tom’s bike, information cards, posters and vibrant orange collection buckets. The main act ‘Never the Bride’ and the supporting act ‘Andy De Rosa’ also gave a percentage of their takings from the sale of their merchandise. MAD Steve (my dad) arrived at around 4 pm to set up and organise the area for our combined fundraising table and then we arrived at 7pm once Nicholas was in bed!! (being babysat by his great-grandmother of 85).

The concert was fabulous and there was a good turn out of people (around 250). Tom stayed with us until midnight and headed home in need of some sleep to prepare for his Sunday race with Ollie but mum, dad and I stayed until the club started to quieten down at 2am. Weary we returned home with our buckets and went to bed.

Many thanks need to go to all the work that my dad put into the night, John Hicks Owner of ‘The Academy’ Basingstoke, for allowing us to fund raise and his organisation, Nikki Lamborn of ‘Never the Bride’ for donating a percentage of her takings and also giving us additional material to auction to raise more money at a later date, Andy De Rosa for donating all his takings and so many others for donating their time to help us.

All in all the buckets raised £279.57 - Thanks for counting it Gran

It’s not just the cyclists who are in training - the support crew are too. And seeing as Penny, Sasha and Luke are going to be following us in a camper van, it’s about time they found out what they’ve let themselves in for.

The California was borrowed from VW by Ollie, and clan Marriage headed for the Devon coast, taking up residence on a cracking campsite above Seaton.

The camper was awesome. Electric pop-up roof, twin hob cooker, sink, fridge, awning, electric sliding door, swiveling front seats, sliding rear seats, auxiliary heater, you name it, it’s got it. Sasha actually told me: “Daddy, it’s the best car you’ve ever brought home”. Those who know what Ollie does for a living will appreciate the magnitude of those words…

Anyway, it’s really well built and packaged, and although you have to be organised with where things are kept, there’s plenty of storage space - in fact I’m not sure we found every single cubbyhole. You feel a bit like a snail, because you carry everything with you when you move, but it sleeps four easily and will be perfect for our LEJOG adventure. Oh, and the stove cover doubles up as a handy nappy changing area…

I’ve been won over. Unlike a caravan, this is one cool machine.