Mike has been Travelling all summer raising smiles!! now time to raise some money!!

ian in his most modest clothing as usual!! he definitely wont be wearing this on the alps run!!

Bangers for Ben 2024 or Hiiielp! (As Penelope would say!)

Please Help Us Raise Money For Ben Support For Life

24 September 2024

So here we are a couple of short hours away from the Bangers4Ben charity run and it's fair to say I'm excited and terrified all at the same time!!

What is this all about I hear you say.... Well there's always a story behind what we do and this is today's....

For many years, I couldn't drive. In fact as a petrol head i guess its quite an unusual thing to not pass your teat (or even attempt to) until the ripe age of 33, especially given that I had a real need for a car.

So here's the story, and hopefully it goes some way to explaining how important the ben support for life charity is to me and in turn why i want to do them proud.

From a young age, cars and bikes were in my blood. Dad was always seemingly destroying things in a messy and seemingly haphazard manner only to miraculously find way to put them back together in such a way that they now worked after many years of rust and neglect.

That's not to day they didn't break down again, the memories of pushing cars outside the school to jump start them giving the small minded (and non car owning for the most part) more popular kids and their onward sneering friends/parents still haunted me years later but, fair play to him, we always had a car ( and a boat and a caravan for that matter, even motorbikes, both on and off road and my favourite, a monkey bike, great little thing until mum fell off/on it) so cars and all things wheeled were my childhood.

O we had many things 4 legged and even hooved too, horses and a goat, Sally, In the large back yard of the afore mentioned old ex council house but that is another matter entirely. It's fair to say we were a pretty hands on unusual family for the area we lived in.

So through this love of all things automotive, i could not wait to pass my test!!

My parents bought me some driving lessons for my 17th and off I went.

Local video shop owner (remember them! Small shop, way before we had blockbuster in the uk and some proper dodgy titles on the top shelf) was also a driving instructor..... It wasn't till I was alone with this very strange looking, heavily whiskey and cigarette breathed man that i realised why he had his hands in so many pies. Turns our in a later news report that he was not just selling normal videos and indeed, participating in some pretty unsavoury stuff, so he had a lovely long holiday at the bequest of her majesty on a special wing with his own kind and that was it for a while for the driving lessons. Thankfully I was not a wallflower so no damage to me personally but, it really did put me off.

I did eventually try to pick it back up in my twenties but by then i had become rather unwell with heart issues and lots of mystery illnesses, it was a case of wake up each day and see which new and exciting thing my body decided to do plus, I was lucky to have 3 children eventually and despite lots of time in and out of cardiology, wheelchairs etc, i was able to get around really well and was happy to take the train bus or taxi's when needed. I guess its fair to say that i didn't worry about driving for some years.

This was until Ian decided he was bored with driving everywhere and chucked me in the driving seat, with no plan or warning (hence no pressure, clever sod) and had me driving the back roads around leafy hook, hampshire, within hours.

Within two weeks i did the back roads to London and drove through said capital city for the full day ( i didn't drive back as that was a motorway!) the kids were all in the back of the car so here i was as a brand new driver responsible for 4 passengers, the kids winding me up about killing them all and making A4 paper signs with such ditties as " my mums single and ready to mingle" "help we've been kidnapped" and shouting " were all going to die" an then putting said signs up at traffic lights and stops.... They were a mischievous bunch but instead of the bloody incessant noise and laughing driving me mad, it actually helped me concentrate and i was in my element.

Took a while to get a test and i had a few formal lessons with a very cool laid back local instructor (Adrian of Optimus driving school) in a brand new BMW mini but, on the 18th october 2011 6 months after the first day driving i passed my test and the first thing we did was for me to drive to cornwall. Five hours with a half hour stop as i needed a nervous wee! We collected some fibre glass doors for a mini we were doing up and drove straight back home!!

It's fair to say, after all those years of illness and being told I could not do things, i finally could and thus, the car became my legs.

So what could this possibly have to do with charity and helping people??

When i was super ill, I had no one outside of my own family and a few friends to help. I never at any point asked for help. I coped pretty much alone, financially and otherwise. I didn't know that helping hands like BEN existed. I was also very stubborn and probably struggled to ask for help.

That was before I found car people. My people.

Car people are amazing, they come together for each other, they support, laugh and cry together. They're not afraid to talk about mental and physical health and I can honestly say since I found them, I have rarely been treated as different/weird/annoying - as I was so often before.

The Ben support 4 Auto charity support these lovely new found family throughout the automotive industry. They support my much loved tribe and for that reason, I want to support them as much as I can. Hopefully, I am still on the way up physically and wont need their help in the future but, I know they are there and that's a great great thing.

When we first signed up for Bangers for Ben ( the British motor show and Automotions event to raise money for BEN charity) I had no idea where we were going and what it would entail

We only knew that we needed to procure a car for under £750 decorate in the theme of kids tv and that we would be driving somewhere cool.

We were very very lucky to be given Magic Mike the Micra from Ian's nephew Christopher and his lovely partner Kia (as they had bought a shiny new car) which is super generous and a real help as we would not have been able to afford to decorate it properly with our limited budget!!

We then had plenty in the pot for the decor and Ian found a lovely young lady who is a well known graffiti artist that goes under the name of Willow the Wispa. Or Jo as we know her.

Jo spent a full day with us transforming Mike into the wacky races car you see today, completely freehand, no drawing first!! It was amazing to watch and we got to know Jo and appreciate her very much. She is an astounding young lady that I'm sure will take the world by storm and that we are looking forward to doing more work with.

With the little car painted in Wacky Races glory we set about planning to show it all summer through various pop up events and the main British Motor show to promote the event,

Mike became quite the local celebrity, appearing in the local paper and us being beeped and waved all the time, not least by the local police who found him hilarious! The little Nissan has been super reliable and we had no worries about the run...wherever it was!!!

Fast forward a week or two and we discover that we will taking Mike to the Alps!!! Pretty cool and kind of weird as Jo during the graffiti session had painted snow capped mountain son the back ( very Wacky races!!) I, at that point, was extremely excited as I love heights and winding roads so fingers crossed we get to put the Micra through its paces!!

So 4 days in a tiny little car, no idea what route or what we will need (I will no doubt take way too much as I have no idea what to expect) and... I've been told we have to dress up so i got the short pink straw that is "Penelope Pitstop" and his nibs will be Dick Dastardly..... It's well known I am allergic to pink, brings me out in hives so this could be a challenge....

I'm off now to scour Vinted and the charity shops for more last minute hideously bright pink items. Already found a snow suit ( very late 80's) and some horrible long white boots that are very scratchy to wear...( and may 0r may not react to a uv light from the previous owner) but it's all in a good cause!! And, that's all that matters!

Next time I type, I will have hopefully been through the alps, to some awesome places and most of all, have raised some money with Ian as The Classic Coachworks team and the official 2024 Driven Women entry in Magic Mike the Majestic Micra!!

The link for donations is in my instagram bio (Belle Wednesday) facebook stories (Belinda Wednesday) and on classic coachworks Tik Tok and Instragram :@)

Here’s some pics below of Magic Mike before he goes off on his travels, He has been to all the pop up shows throughout summer for the brtish motor show and is even endorsed by the lovely Sam Hard of Hard Up Garage ( who has been an amazing friend to us!) and of course the lovely Tim Bot from car sos… I will add their video here encouraging donations. they’re always so supportive. We are so lucky!

Thanks for reading as always.

XxX

Belle, Blondie, Penelope (at the weekends)