A Kiltoom man is to take part in the adventure of a lifetime by driving an ambulance 16,000 kms (10,000 miles ) from London to Mongolia next month before leaving it with a local charity.
As a commercial diver, former Athlone Community College student Niall McHugh (32 ) is no stranger to adventure, and hopes to complete the Mongol Rally with his three teammates in six weeks.
Niall and his team - operating under the name of Mongolance - will leave London on July 24 in a former NHS ambulance bought on eBay, with over 200 other teams who have raised a minimum of £1,000 for the far eastern country.
Participants are not limited to raising £1,000, and anything above is allowed to be donated to a charity of the team’s choice.
Niall and his co-adventurers have chosen Cancer Research UK as “everyone on our team knows someone close to them who is, or who has been affected by cancer”, and is having a fund-raising evening in the Snug Bar on Saturday, July 17.
Corporate sponsorship so far has been of the practical nature, with firms offering spare parts, tyres, vehicle insurance for the trip, and a full service and MOT for the ambulance.
“We’re certainly not opposed to second-hand donations,” said Niall.
The Mongol Rally started in 2004 with only six teams, of which only four made it to the finish line in Ulaan Baatar, the capital of Mongolia.
Unlike its more famous cousin, the Paris-Dakar Rally, the Mongol Rally is not a race and deliberately, the organisers do not set a route or provide backup. Each team has to plan its own route through France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhan, Russia, and finally, Mongolia.
