This section covers all the Ws: who, where, why, what, when, and, erm, how. 
A daily record of the plans made and the decisions taken. 
Click on the articles below for the latest news.

Yesterday was a big day for us. Not only did Lisa and I get the 'glamour' shots with our little car, but we also managed to race past £1,000 in donations for New Start. A THOUSAND POUNDS! Amazing. It is no exaggeration to say that we are all blown away by the generosity shown already by friends, family and colleagues. We only really set up the JustGiving page to link back to this website and to show New Start that we were serious about raising money for them. It wasn't

So the JustGiving page is live so it was time to share it with all our friends and family. The easiest way to do it was to post a message on Facebook with a link to our page. We put it on and let the power of social media do its thing. I also sent the updated JustGiving link to the rest of Team Ellis, and they promptly spammed their friends - good work, guys! Below is the message I put on: [...] Me and Lisa, along with four friends (Richie, Rachel, Carl and Matt), are emba

Today has been a big day for us all as the JustGiving page officially went live. Lisa's mum and dad gave us some cash to sponsor us, and she put it on the system in their name. The first contribution was on the board. Not long after, there were two, then three. Within an hour, we had over £200 in the coffers! I'd spoken to brother-in-law Tommy, who was trying to create a link that would auto-fill our suggested amounts when people clicked the donate link, but alas, he coul

We are getting to the sharp end now, as there are around 30 days left before we head off into Europe in our glorified shopping trolleys and our mini-SUV. It is time to complete some of the outstanding tasks before we leave, one of which is properly setting up the fundraising page. Speaking to Steve Fowler, he suggested setting up our own JustGiving page linked to the New Start charity, so we can see how much we have raised for their campaign. We can all send out the same li

I received a phone call yesterday from a lovely gentleman called Steve Fowler at New Start, the charity we will be raising money for on the trip. He apologised for no one ringing back after I left a message recently. It turns out that the Fundraising Manager has left, and their replacement doesn't start until early May. Not a problem, really, as we haven't started our push for donations, but it was good to know they are still operating and want us to back them. I explained

Time to get some charity admin done, which started, ironically, with a non-charity-related task. I spoke with Sarah about New Start. While we were on the call, I asked her to send the picture of Ellis she used for his Snugzy so we could order one for the trip. She sent over a picture, and I had a crack at creating the pillow with his face on a shirtless body covered in tattoos. I came up with something and showed it to the group; they all gave me the thumbs-up, so I sent i

Can you believe this is the 200th blog post on our pokey little corner of the internet? If that isn't a good enough reason to write a post taking stock of where we are, our achievements and what is still to do, I don't know what is. So where are we? We have registered three cars for the event and have five of the six drivers sorted. Carl is still looking for his co-driver, but Lisa and I are completely invested in driving Team: Dirty Martin around Europe, as are Richie an

So Ellis might be joining us on the trip. Well, an effigy of Ellis might be, anyway! While speaking with Sarah about the fundraising we were considering in Ellis' name, she said we should take him with us, which freaked me out. I was thinking there would be a tub of ashes or something, then she produced a little cuddle pillow thing with his face on it. Sarah had created a pillow with Ellis' face on it - something he would have hated, apparently, as his head looks massive!

With hotels booked for the official rally, the extended route locked in, and everyone committed to the trip (barring disasters), it felt like an appropriate time to let Sarah know that we were thinking of using the trip to raise money for New Start, the charity that looked after her husband, and our friend, Ellis. I'll be honest, I was nervous telling Sarah in case I was bringing back sad memories, or she had fallen out with the charity or thought we were being ghouls. I men

The original reason for attempting this trip was to make some memories. No one knows what is around the corner; why wait to do...