Friends' festive desert adventure

4:50pm Wednesday 3rd December 2008

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TWO businessmen are leaving their families behind for Christmas to drive 4,000 miles for charity.

Brian Brown and Dean Halsey are undertaking a gruelling rally challenge across Europe and Africa in aid of Fair Havens Hospice and poor people in Gambia.

Brian, 62, of School Road, Downham, and Dean, 45, of Brays Lane, Rochford, are competing in the Plymouth to Banjul Rally between December 20 and January 7.

The intrepid travellers, both engineers at Wickford-based Chester Hall Precision Engineering, will be driving a 1996 four-litre Jeep Cherokee. aiming for the finishing line in Gambia.

Once there, they will auction the Jeep and some of their equipment to raise money for water and education projects.

The pair are also hoping to raise £5,000 for Fair Havens, in Westcliff.

Mr Halsey said: “Brian and I have enjoyed visiting the Gambia immensely, but we have seen, first hand, the poverty of the majority of people there.

“We feel that we are in a good position to raise a significant amount of money through sponsorship to benefit the country’s local projects, as well as helping Fair Havens, a very worthy cause back home.”

They will be taking plenty of water, fuel, camping equipment a GPS system and a satellite phone to stay in touch with home.

The pair plan to drive 12 hours a day, camping and cooking for themselves.

Mr Brown added: “We are both relishing the thought of participating in this challenge and raising money for the charities.

“We can’t think of any other way of justifying to our wives why we should take three weeks off over Christmas and New Year in order to drive an old banger across the Sahara Desert!”

To sponsor Dean and Brian, visit www.mad-moment.co.uk To find out about othe roverseas challenges offered by Havens Hospices for 2009, call 01702 220350, or visit www.havenshospices.org.uk