2021 Jeep Challenge
Jolly Jeep
The Willys Jeep is a long way from the vehicles we know today.
For a start it does not have a heating system and is over 70 years old – there is no need to have doors or windows.
The J.E.E.P is well known to have Just Enough Essential Parts – so how far can that take me?
There are many future challenges this Jeep is going to be used for but the first part of the challenge is to rebuild it!
The Challenge
It is time to thank the NHS and the staff for I have always said ‘they are the real heroes’. Throughout my treatment and the follow up appointments I had since my bone marrow transplant the system has not let me down.
In my challenges I often choose to rebuild old vehicles – giving them a new lease of life – to inspire others to achieve their own goals. I used a boat as my goal to get through my treatment – building it up bit by bit which I found to be a fantastic escape from reality and a great goal to focus on. In many ways I feel this renovation is comparable to what the NHS has done for me and so many others – when a machine has a fault I diagnose the cause, then I go to the stores to locate a new part to get the machine to run again. The doctors diagnosed me and went to the Anthony Nolan Trust to find my donor. This is where I was fitted with my new immune system so I was back up and running – just like the machine.
The Jolly Jeep Challenge is to rebuild a Willys Jeep and giving others the opportunity to get involved in the restoration and the challenge. When the Jeep is finished myself and the people that have helped restore it will come along to the bone marrow transplant hospitals across the country to thank the staff for everything they do. The campaign is to raise funds an awareness for Bloodwise, the Anthony Nolan Trust and the hospitals charitable trusted related to cancer services and more importantly recruit new potential life saving donor to the register!
Over the course of the summer 2018 fellow survivors and I will drive the Jeep to the bone marrow transplant hospitals, where on arrival we will invite the nurses, doctors and other staff to pop down and grab a chocolate of thanks.
The UK’s transplant hospitals are: