'Help for Hospice' Charity Road Run, Easter Monday 2025

Each year, the Duchy Ford Club hosts a charity road run, normally around April time, and each year the charity changes. This year, the DFC decided that we would donate any proceeds from the road run to Cornwall Hospice Care - St Julia's Hospice. It's just one of those local, worthwhile causes that you never know when yourself, or a loved one, may need to use their services.

Easter Monday soon came around, and we had about 57 cars prebooked for the run - this year we decided on Fords only, rather than opening the run to all car models. It was really lovely to see some non-club members in attendance; it truly is amazing how many Fords come out the woodwork at these events! A few club members, myself included, got to Cornwall Gold (our starting point) for about 9am to help set up and see in any early birds. Not long after, a few of the DFC club members began to trickle in to the car park. With all our prebooked Fords, and some very generous donations from our club members, we already had raised about £700 before the run itself even began, which was an amazing feat in itself. I couldn't go without saying a massive thank you to our club treasurers, Brian and Stacey, for working so hard sorting out the donations.

Club member Tegan, driving into Cornwall Gold.

Road run entrants had time to grab a breakfast bap from Cornwall Gold - yum! - and were able to mooch around the cars before then grouping together for our pre-road run talk, and group photo with representatives from Cornwall Hospice Care.

Our group photo with Cornwall Hospice representatives.

We had a few Fords turn up on the day, most likely wanting to make the most of the sunny weather while it lasted, and before long we were heading off from Cornwall Gold along the coast road towards Portreath. Unfortunately with it being Easter Monday, the roads were busy and our convoy was quickly split into several groups. Eventually, we all managed to reconvene near St Just on the stunning coastal road down towards Botallack, and then Lands End. It was a pleasant drive with many people stopping to appreciate the variety of Fords before them, and the weather was just fantastic.

We soon got to Lands End, where we'd been allocated parking on the grass area, and we all parked up together, some 60 Fords, basking in the sun. We all sorted our parking, and made the most of our hour lunch break at this pinnacle landmark. The sun was absolutely relentless, and soon people were heading back to their cars to get ready for the next leg of our 'Help for Hospice' road run. Unlike previous years, we decided to bypass Marazion/Helston, and just drive through Penzance, past the prom, and then back to Redruth up the A30. Entrants then parked up at Inn for All Seasons, who welcomed us and hosted our final event of the day, which was our charity raffle, also in aid of Cornwall Hospice Care. Refreshments were greatly welcomed, and our drivers were soon sat and waiting for the raffle to begin. We had some amazing prizes, varying from a fuzzy plush duck affectionately known as 'Burt', to wine and Easter eggs.

Burt travelled on the road run with us, before being won in the raffle!

Thanks to the amazing generosity of those who entered our road run, bought raffle tickets, and donated regardless of whether they could actually attend or not, we managed to raise a whopping £1,100 - which was then bumped up to £1,300 after we received some extra donations from our club members, which really demonstrates the amazing community spirit that the Duchy Ford Club has. We are at 114 members now, as of 7th May, and so many of our members are in this club for more than just the fact that they are a Ford enthusiast - we all realise that we can have fun on our road runs, car meets, and shows, and make an impact for well-deserving local charities at the same time.

We met the representatives of Cornwall Hospice Care once again on Wednesday 30th April, at St Julia's Hospice, where we had a group photo taken of the cheque handover. It was absolutely wonderful to speak to the lovely nurses who work at this establishment - we are so thankful for them and everything they do!

Left: Cheque handover with CHC representatives and nurses. Right: Nurses loving the Capri!

I managed to nab an interview on Radio Cornwall on Thursday 1st May, with Julie Skentelbery, where I was able to discuss the club and its charitable achievements in 2025 so far - you can listen to this here. I also obviously had to talk about our upcoming Duchy Ford Show Weekend, which is just 45 days away now, where we'll be raising money for Cornwall Air Ambulance and Cornwall Blood Bikes. If you aren't booked in for that already, we suggest you crack on as tickets are selling fast!

All in all, our 'Help for Hospice' road run was a great success, and a massive thank you goes out to the venues who hosted us (Cornwall Gold, Lands End Car Park, Inn For All Seasons), our recovery man Bobbie, of Bocard Recovery, who attended the run in his own Ford recovery truck to assist with any break downs, and of course to our amazing club members and road run entrants who made it all possible - give yourself a pat on the back.

Until next time,

Jenni Lunn

DFC Marketing & Membership Secretary