If the Olympic Torch wasn’t already enough, two vintage tractors on a trip from John o’ Groats to Land’s End to fundraise for a cancer charity are also passing through the Borders this year.
The 14-day, 985-mile journey ploughed by the “little grey Fergies”, a classic Ferguson TE20 tractor model manufactured from 1946 to 1956, follows the A68 from Lauder to Jedburgh on Friday, September 14, starting at 9am, and travelling at an estimated 15mph.
The two drivers, Fred Sullivan and his son Aaron, 19, who is battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma, are raising money for a new young oncology unit at the Christie Hospital and Research Centre in Manchester.
Christie Hospital, one of the world’s leading cancer research centres, supports young sufferers and their families through the months and often years of treatment, and relies on donations to top up government funding.
The organisers of the event hope Borderers will help fundraise by joining this stage of the route with their own sponsored tractor drive, or by driving one of the Sullivans’ little grey Fergies for £100.
Anyone interested can visit www.top-to-bottom-tractor-run.co.uk,.