A FORMER motor racing champion from Evesham has raised more than £40,000 for Cancer Research UK after embarking on a challenge of a lifetime.
Joy Rainey drove her 1904 veteran car from coast to coast across America from Oceanside, California to Florida in memory of her husband and to raise thousands of pounds to help support vital research into cancer.
The vintage car enthusiast was planning to make the 3,000 mile trip with husband Trevor Hulks before he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Sadly Trevor’s cancer spread and he lost his fight with the disease in October 2009.
Following Trevor’s death, Joy felt the trip was unfinished business and so she decided to continue to attempt the coast to coast journey in her 109-year-old horseless carriage and pledged to raise £20,000.
In May 2013, Joy successfully completed the trip experiencing climbs of 6500ft mountains and hot deserts at just 20 to 25mph.
Now three year’s later her online fundraising pages have brought in a total of £40,211.
Maria Parker, local fund-raising manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “I think people have supported this research because one of the biggest challenges in successfully treating cancer is preventing it from spreading around the body, and keeping cancer that has already spread under control.
“90 per cent of cancer deaths are caused when cancer cells travel to new sites within the body and grow as secondary tumours.
“Research is an extremely expensive business but the fact that people can contribute in small amounts to specific online pages focused on different areas of research means that everyone can make a meaningful contribution to a disease that sadly, will now affect one-in-two people in their lifetime.”
