Fundraiser for Big Russ and Macmillan.

V6SINGH

Official UKCougar Stuntman
Jul 29, 2005
5,709
1,100
BE11 3ND
Some of you may remember Big Russ, I know a few know him lol, he once had the Frosty Cougar affectionately known as "Jelly". Jelly unfortunately met with a nasty end when she was rear ended and shunted in to another car. It was the one with the "P38 Bodykit" :LOL: He tried to rescue it and it wasn't to be.

Anyhoo, Big Russ, and I really hope he doesn't mind me doing/saying this, has inoperable Cancer. He has been working like a Trojan to do something to make a difference and has set the goal of doing it too. On the weekend of the 29/30/31 March and the 1st of April, he is doing a Motorbike ride from John O Groats to Lands End. He's doing it all on an old bike he's bought, done up and after the event will be auctioning it off to raise even more money. I can't begin to tell you how much he has put in to making this happen, but he is a man on a mission. I hope to be joining him this coming weekend to help out on a fundraiser day in his home town out in Cambridgeshire to try and do something to help.

Whilst things are massively screwed for everyone, I know that we as a community are second to none with our support and generosity for a good cause. This is definitely one. I don't want to delve too much in to Russ' life as such but if you've met him you'll know he really is an awesome bloke! One of the best in fact! Even with no Cougar, he was at a MFSM at Tony's last year and spent the whole day with us tearing cars apart and putting them back together again! Everything he's doing now, having told his 3 kids what's what is testament to how great a guy he really is.

He has been lucky enough to get support in the form of fuel and accommodation but needs to raise some cash for Macmillan and the hospital that have been looking after him and that's where I'm hoping we can help.

Every little helps and I'm not in to asking people for amounts or to publish them etc etc all I'm asking is if you can spare anything, please pm me!! Having spoken to Tony and checking out Russ' progress on Facebook, I will collect all the pennies up in my paypal and then offer the whole amount as one to Russ in which ever way he wants it.

If anyone is interested, I think there's a FB Event set up for the main event with full details of route etc should anyone want to keep an eye out for them. I understand that on the last day for the final leg from Bristol to Lands End there are over 100 bikes joining in plus a Police Escort on Bikes too.

I have offered up the car parts I have left over for this too, now open to donations for the cause! See :
http://www.ukcougarforum.com/vb/showthread.php?22939-For-Big-Russ



Thanks for reading :)
 
Had a couple of donations to get us going! Thank you so much :)

All donations welcome, big or small!!
 
Leg 1 Russ has requested to do on his own, from John O'Groats down to Edinburgh, summat he's always wanted to do but never made time for, then he'll be meeting a few and on down to York

Leg 2 is from York to Cambridge City centre on the Saturday afternoon, leaving York at around 12.30 :) the run will be run down the east coast as follows. Meet at York cathedral, then down over Hull bridge:) turn then to Grimsby, Skegness down to kings Lynn, ride then down to Ely and then onto Cambridge.(I will be meeting up at Skegness, Tony)

Leg 3 will be from addenbrooks hospital on the Sunday morning short blast up the M11 to the A14 then A14 for the complete length, short blast down M6 to the NEC turning were we can either duck into the NEC or my choice Is the motorcycle museum. Then a run down to the hospital in Birmingham centre. Now you can either head back home to follow me through some great roads down to Bristol:) namely the A38:) into Brstol:)
(I will verify times and locations)

Leg4 is the biggie, probably somewhere near a hundred bikes, six rider police escort, leaving Bristol Monday morning and working on down to Lands End, i dont have details for this section yet as its still being defined due to numbers, but i reckon its gonna be epic ;-)
 
Local press release this week ;-)

March 2013 For Immediate Release
Ramsey motorcyclist braves the cold weather to journey from John O’Groats to Lands End in only 4 days!
Russell Neve from Ramsey will be undertaking the 1081 mile challenge in only 4 days. Russell is taking on the challenge over the Easter weekend to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and is planning to visit a number of cancer units along the way.
As everyone else is busy eating their Easter Eggs Russell will be making his way down the country, never one to take the easy route he is planning to visit 6 cancer centres all over the country, including Addenbrookes in Cambridge which isn’t exactly on the way! Luckily he won’t be on his own the whole way and has over 80 bikers joining him for the last leg from Bristol to Land’s End. Russell is hoping to raise £2500 from his challenge
Im am doing this ride as I was recently diagnosed with Advance kidney cancer, being a rare blood group AB- its harder for me to find a suitable donor. I came up with the idea of the ride and visits to the units to raise awareness and show that in the event of bad news we can all stand up to this illness and not let it beat us. I’m looking forward to the challenge and cant wait til the day I set off.
Pauline Craig the local fundraising manager for Macmillan Cancer Support said “we are delighted Russell has chosen to raise money for Macmillan. I know he has worked really hard to get lots of people involved and we are really grateful for his support. Macmillan’s ambition is to reach and improve the lives of everyone effected by cancer and we will only be able to do that with the support of people like Russell”
If you want to sponsor Russell for his challenge visit his fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/
ENDS
For further information, please contact Pauline Craig, Macmillan Cancer Support Fundraising Manager for Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire on 07834 191203 and pcraig@macmillan.org.uk
Notes to Editors:
About Macmillan Cancer Support: cancer is the toughest fight most of us will ever face. But you don’t have to go through it alone. The Macmillan team is with you every step of the way, from the nurses and therapists helping you through treatment to the campaigners improving cancer care. For answers, support or just a chat, visit www.macmillan.org.uk or call Macmillan on 0808 808 00 00 – no matter what your question.

Online fundraising donations and ideas - JustGiving
www.justgiving.com
JustGiving - the easiest way to fundraise and donate to charity online

9:56am
Russell Neve

Charity Press Day.
23rd March 2013 at 12pm
Hi my name is Russell Neve and I am holding a Charity day at Stevelin Motorcycles on the above date.
Im a doing a Charity Motorcycle ride from John O Groats To Lands End over the Easter weekend in Aid of MacMillan
Come along and have a chat and see if we can Raise more money for this cause.
There will be Reps from Macmillan on the day and Local press covering the story.
It will Also give you the chance to meet me, Steve from Stevelin Motorcycles and Paul from 2WHEEL JUNKIE.
 
Anything we can give is better than nothing! There is a lot more info on FB for those who'd like to know more and Russ even posted a photo of the article in his local press that's being printed tomorrow on my timeline this morning. Those of you that are on my friends lost please go check it out and let's make his mission monumental. This is true inspirational stuff at its best, lets be part of it :)
 
Anything we can give is better than nothing! There is a lot more info on FB for those who'd like to know more and Russ even posted a photo of the article in his local press that's being printed tomorrow on my timeline this morning. Those of you that are on my friends lost please go check it out and let's make his mission monumental. This is true inspirational stuff at its best, lets be part of it :)

Kully, for those of us not on FB could you possibly post the itinery Russ is hoping to follow, especially for the Sunday leg into Bristol. (y)
 
The route plan etc is all above as Tony has copied across. Tonight I will try and link the pages in here if FB will let me ;)
 
Russ' page for the ride : https://www.facebook.com/events/499237136784856/

This Saturday's Charity day at the bike store : https://www.facebook.com/events/153407054820533/


Hope the links work!

I'd love to say this is doing well but there's only been those initial few donations. Can we make just £100 as a club? This is my last real push for this week as I shall be spending my weekend helping Dave, seeing Tony and helping out at the fundraising day. If anyone can spare just a few quid, it'd be most welcome for this truly inspirational event.

If you think I've just gone on, I apologise, that's not my intent. I'm just passionate about helping for a thoroughly good cause and especially to support a good friend and visionary. I personally have lost people I loved to Cancer and every little we do might just be one step closer to that cure. I'm more in to doing what I can here because I know that it makes a positive difference to people who need it and is not swallowed up in to corporate accounts to earn lots of interest or one of those setups where only 5/10p in the pound actually gets to where they say it will. This is here, at home and can't progress without us.


Thanks for reading


Kully
 
Hi Guys just a quickie, due to other commitments I will only be going as far as Birmingham, I'll be meeting the convoy for lunch at Skegness about midday (weather dependant) and from there it will be Kings Lynn and Ely and on to Cambridge where Russ is staying overnight. Convoy will leave Addenbrookes between 9 and 10 and go A14/M6, we will be at the National Motorcycle Museum J6 M42 around midday, then onto the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital by about 2ish, the convoy will travel on from there down the A46 into Bristol, am trying to find out exactly where.
Andy will ring you tomorrow sometime.

Just giving page is at £810 and it would be awesome if we got it to a grand before setoff fri morn, so please even if its only a couple of quid, it will all go to a very good cause ;-) Thanks guys n gals
 
kully, could you pm me a paypal email so that i can make a donation? Hes a top bloke and i remember him helping me with my car. I also put my old mercury cougar badge on his car too! thank you dude
 
Day 2 complete and Russ is resting up in Cambridge tonight. His day tomorrow takes him along the A14 and on to the M6 here at Rugby and along to the QE Hospital in Birmingham for his next stop. Then down to Bristol tomorrow night ready for the big one - Day 4 The Final Day! Russ is doing ok from what I know and is looking forward to getting this wrapped up!! He took some very snowy pictures in Scotland where he stopped and helped a biker who had broken down by offering him a lift to the nearest town.

I'm hoping to join in for a tiny while tomorrow on the A14 and back here. We'll see what tomorrow brings :)

Thanks to those who have been kind enough to be in touch here and those of you on FB who have followed Russ' journey and given on his page.
 
For those who are interested, I saw Russ today along with Tony and Karen. Tagged along for some miles and to get some snaps. I left them on the M6 where they were heading up to meet Paul at the Motorcycle Museum before Russ headed down to Bristol for the night.

Russ has had a spot of difficulty tonight though as he has apparently lost final drive on the bike. From what I gather he has sorted a replacement for tomorow and will be doing the repairs before setting off.

Final day tomorrow! The big one - Bristol down to Lands End. Fingers crossed that nothing else goes wrong!!

Probably my last push too, if anyone else wants to put in a donation, please do so, all funds greatly received to push the total even higher. Last time I checked it was at just over £1200.