Release Date: 03 March 2010
Release ID: 4565

John O’Groats to Land’s End – on a forklift!

A Jungheinrich forklift truck has been driven between John O’Groats and Land’s End - raising over £15,000 to date for Cancer Research in the process.

The truck, a diesel-powered counterbalanced hydrostatic model from the Jungheinrich 4s Series, left John O’Groats on February 25th and reached Land’s End four days later – despite encountering some severe weather in the Scottish Highlands.

Three friends – Stuart Colvin, Steve Hare and Steve Golding – took turns to operate the truck in four hour ‘shifts’.

Stuart, Steve and Steve undertook the challenge in memory of their close friend Tim Frankham who died from a brain tumour in May 2009.

Stuart Colvin commented: “Over the years people have walked – in some cases naked – run, skateboarded and bussed their way from John O’Groats to Land’s End so we wanted to come up with a different way of making the journey in memory of Tim.”

He added: “Tim was an inspiration to many with his courage and positive outlook. As part of his treatment, Tim received a new Chemotherapy drug which extended his life by a year and we aim to raise at least the amount it cost to provide this treatment.”

Craig Johnson, marketing manager of Jungheinrich UK Ltd, commented: “When we were approached with the plan to drive a forklift truck from John O’Groats to Land’s End we were only too pleased to get involved. At Jungheinrich we pride ourselves on the reliability of our products and a robust forklift was certainly essential for this particular application!”

Donations to ‘Team Tim’ are most welcome. Visit www.justgiving.com/teamtim2010 for further information.