175 THE GREEN LIGHT FOR A NEW START...

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 mentioned this to her, and she reassured me that she was ok with what we were doing and was behind us. <phew>

I asked whether New Start was the right charity to go for, or if it would be better to go for a more general cystic fibrosis charity. She explained that the main CF charity is national and therefore receives donations from all over the country. In contrast, New Start is regional, so its reach is much smaller.

Now that we have her blessing, I explained that we will speak to New Start and get the ball rolling.

Each car can have a QR code that links back to the gifting page, which will confirm that everything is above board and we aren't just out to make a few quid to cover petrol costs!!!

We were thinking of how much to ask people for. We don't want to take the Michael and ask for an extortionate amount, at the same time, we are driving tiny city cars all over Europe, so they need to make it worth our while! An idea I had was to ask for a penny a mile. That is cheap, right?

A penny a mile is cheap, but when we are covering around 2200 miles, it adds up to the princely sum of £22, which is a fair amount, I reckon. We might do a 'rally only' amount too covering the part from Namur to Monte Carlo, which will come out at a more reasonable £8. I'll have a chat with the others and see what they think.

Sarah has a contact with the charity, the irony is not lost on me that her surname is 'Ellis' - it is almost as if it was meant to be!!! I'll add 'contacting a charity' to my growing list of tasks. In the meantime, click on the CHARITY tab to learn more about New Start.