Parents team up for rally challenge (From Salisbury Journal)
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Parents team up for rally challenge
5:20pm Thursday 28th July 2011 in New Forest News By Miranda Robertson
Kevin Trevett , Valerie Chaplin and Richard Marlow with Louise Trott from the Wessex Autistic Society
A SUSPICION that her daughter may have autism has set the wheels in motion for an Alderholt woman’s challenge of a lifetime.
Bookkeeper Valerie Chaplin, 43, who has two adopted children, started contacting the Wessex Autistic Society when her daughter displayed signs of the condition.
The society has been in regular contact with help and advice and newsletters, one of which mentioned the Euro33 rally from Wimborne to Rome.
The 4,000-mile road trip is raising money primarily for Children in Need, but other children’s charities stand to get a chunk of the money too.
Now Mrs Chaplin has recruited fellow Alderholt parents Richard Marlow, who has a son with Asperger’s syndrome, and Kevin Trevett, to pile into her little Fiat 500 for the mission. They are the first team to sign up for the challenge.
The car has been especially decorated for the occasion, and the trio, who are calling themselves Going for Gold, will share the wearing of the Pudsey Bear suit, which one of them must wear at all times on the trip.
Dressed to Impress of Alderholt is making them the costume for free.
Mrs Chaplin said: “I’ve never done anything like this before, but I’ve been watching 70-year-olds climb Kilimanjaro with Ben Fogle on the television and thought, if they can do something like that, what’s stopping me?
“So when the Wessex Autistic Society newsletter came through, and the car in the picture advertising the rally was also a Fiat 500, I felt I had to do it.”
The team have to raise £3,500 to go on the trip, of which £1,000 will go to Children in Need, £1,100 to the society and the rest on costs. Anything over that will go to the society.
The trip will set off from Wimborne on November 12, aiming to get to Rome on November 19 to coincide with the annual Children in Need fundraising day.
To sponsor Mrs Chaplin’s team call her on 01425 650597 or go to goldaccounting.co.uk.
