Jay, Paul and Reg are travelling from Oxford to Barcelona in a ‘spacious diesel with a a large boot for beers’ all to raise funds for Sobell House Hospice

Driving a £400 Ford Mondeo more than 1,400 miles may sound like madness but for friends Jay, Paul and Reg there’s method to their madness.

The trio are fulfilling a bucket list dream to compete in a TwoBall Rally and have decided to take on the challenge from July 18th to 22nd to raise funds for Sobell House Hospice.

The Beach Rally will take them from Saint Quentin in France through the French Alps to Annecy, on to the Italian coast, the glitz of Monaco, onwards to the French Riviera to Nice, Cannes and Saint Tropez topping up the tan before heading off towards Spain and the final destination of Barcelona.

The Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCI was purchased for £400 without MOT and has spent the last few weeks being repaired, welded and having a new MOT – with a lot of thanks to team mechanic Reg from Oxford.

Jay, who, along with fellow rallier Paul lives in Abingdon, says: “We will be taking a small tool box as we do expect some issues but myself and Reg both have mechanical knowledge so if we do break down we hope it’s somewhere nice along the way, like the French Alps or the Italian coast.”

Their trusty steed has now been lovingly given a new lease of life and decked out to look like a US police car for their epic adventure and with the three friends ready to go in their costumes, it’s almost time to saddle up and set off. All they need now is your help in their fundraising.

“This charity sits close to my heart as I’ve personally had friends spend their remaining few months at Sobell House and after visiting a good friend’s little brother there it blew me away emotionally,” said Jay. “I saw first hand how amazing the staff took care of the kids and adults, how they worked so hard to make the place look amazing and how kind they were even under the extreme pressures of caring for such very ill people.

“I can’t imagine how it must feel working closely with end of life patients so I feel very passionate about trying to achieve as much money as possible to support them.”

Businesses are invited to get involved and sponsor the car with their logo on a sticker.

The Just Giving page will be updated with pictures and stories of their exploits along their 1,443-mile journey and look out for Jay’s footage of the expedition on TikTok – JayDogUK. You can follow and donate at tinyurl.com/ys5djkkp