FINNING engineer Chris Bee is gearing up to tackle a 194 mile tuk-tuk drive from Skegness to Blackpool, raising funds for Race Against Dementia.
The coast to coast challenge will take place from May 22-25. With a top speed of only 35mph, the journey will present an endurance challenge, with a route planned that avoids all motorways.
The tuk-tuk has been imported from India and fitted with VisionLink telemetry software by Finning UK & Ireland, enabling colleagues to remotely monitor his journey.
Taking on the challenge with friend Rick Martin, and with help from a support team from Tuk-Tuk UK, Chris’s journey will begin at the RNLI station in Skegness and finish the first day at Lincoln Cathedral. Day 2 will take him through Worksop and Sheffield via the A57 to stay overnight in Hyde. The final day will see Chris travel around Manchester on the A56 towards Bolton, up to Darwen and then on to the finish line at the RNLI station in Blackpool.
He has committed to this challenge to raise money for Race Against Dementia after his mother was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. The charity, founded by Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, funds research to help accelerate progress towards a cure for dementia.
Chris said, “Dementia is a disease that affects a lot of people and over the past few years it has impacted my family following my mum’s diagnosis. I have been trying to raise as much money as I can over the past few years and this year myself, Rick and our families wanted to step it up by completing our biggest challenge yet.
“We know this won’t be an easy challenge but have already been blown away by the level of support we have received. Finning has been really generous in fitting the tuk-tuk with VisionLink so my colleagues can support me remotely. It will be really motivating to know they are watching my progress, and I am thrilled to operate what could be one of the world’s first telematics-enabled tuk-tuks!”
Kathryn Palmer, digital manager at Finning UK & Ireland, added, “Everyone at Finning is immensely proud of what Chris has already achieved in raising money to help Race Against Dementia in their fight against this life-changing disease. We are proud to support him on his tuk-tuk challenge and will be watching our telemetry data closely to monitor his progress.”
If you would like to support Chris, you can do so here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/tuk-it-tour?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL
