News

A Golding Homes resident who shrugged off medical advice to join a 4,000-mile motorcycle ride around the outside of the UK has described it as “the trip of a lifetime”.

Tony Little, who lives in Hardwick House, Maidstone, joined four friends on a sponsored ride that started and finished at Chatham Dockyard and followed the coast road all the way, taking in John O’Groats, Wales, Land’s End and the south coast.

The “Round the outside – RAF 100” trip looks set to have raised around £6,000 for the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, the charity that helped the former RAF mechanical transport driver when he was recovering from a triple heart bypass in 2008, while still in his forties.

Tony still suffers from multiple health problems and confessed: “Just before I went, my doctor told me he’d rather I didn’t, but it was too important for me to give something back to the charity that did so much for me. I just couldn’t have stayed at home.”

Safely back home at the end of the 22-day trip, Tony also acknowledged the support of social housing landlord Golding Homes, without which he said he would not have been in a position to take part in the ride. Tony had always wanted to find a way to repay the benevolent fund after the heart attack and the bypass operation, but an accident at work in 2012 left him unable to use his right foot.

The slow recovery brought on additional problems, including diabetes and breathing problems linked to his heart condition, and when he left hospital he found it impossible to stay in his private rented flat because he couldn’t climb the stairs.

With his landlord refusing to help, Tony found himself in temporary accommodation and at a particularly low ebb – until Golding Homes offered him his current home. “It changed my life,” he recalled. “The flat has let me keep my independence and given me the support I needed. Without it I would not have been able to help organise, and take part in, the ride. Above all it has given me stability.”

Tony and co-organiser Peter Spowage were joined by bikers Mick Feeney, Dave Muckle and Steve Smith, with Peter’s wife Pauline as the support driver and Jon Sturdy, of EastCoastWest photography, as the trip’s official lensman.

A setback with one of the sponsors meant the men had to ride their own machines – in Tony’s case a 1700cc Harley Davison Lowrider – but they enjoyed valuable sponsorship from three other companies, Oxford Products, Advance Facilities Management Ltd and Structural Soils.

“Everywhere we stopped people were very supportive and very generous,” Tony added. “We raised more than £900 just from people throwing money in the bucket when we stopped for fuel or to eat.” 

Many of their overnight stays were in places with RAF connections, including bases at Marham, Coningsby, Leeming and Valley, as well as at RNAS Culdrose and the RAF Yacht Club in Hamble. 

“We met some great people, including a whisky distributor who is selling 100 specially labelled bottles of Round The Outside whisky and donating £10 for every one he sells,” Tony commented.  “The trip down the west coast was very wet and windy – and had some interesting climbs and hairpins to negotiate on a Harley – but it was a great trip and one we will remember for a lifetime,” he added.

Tony’s fondest memory of the trip was of a woman in her eighties who was at the RAF Museum in Dumfries when they called in. “She had been a member of the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) and had always wanted to ride a Harley,” Tony recalled. “I took her on the back and she was crying tears of happiness. It was very moving.”

On their various stops around the country the team spoke to various groups about their inspiration and highlighted the wartime sacrifices made by other nationalities, particularly the Polish and Indian pilots who flew with the RAF in WW2.

“We wanted to raise money for the charity but we also set out to raise awareness of the huge part played by the aircrew from other countries who helped in our hour of need,” Tony explained.

(Photo © Jon Sturdy)