The Register has been raising money for the past 10 years. It was hard when we started and it still is. The only difference is the fantastic amount of money our events can now raise. Most of the Charities we have supported are Children’s Charities. Maybe that’s because we are all big kids again whenever we get behind the wheel of our Mini's. Never more so than at the Grand Tour, and I have often thought that we should change the name of our marshalls to nursery attendants.

So how did we get involved with the Children’s Hospice? Well it all started a number of years ago when we got a phone call from the Children’s Hospice asking if we could bring over a Mini for one of the youngsters staying there. We asked if it was alright to bring a few friends with us and parked 25 Mini's in the Hospice and gave Christopher Tucker his own special Mini show. Little did anyone know then what that phone call was going to lead to...

Not only did we gave Christopher his own Mini show we also managed to get him into the front seat of our Mini and took him out on a Mini run with the 25 other Mini's. We also had another little surprise and that was a signed photo of a Mini by John Cooper. We made Christopher an honorary member of the North Devon Mini Register.

Our events are not just about raising money they are also about raising smiles and we did that day. Sadly a little while later Christopher died, but in his memory we have a special trophy that we give out during our Grand Tour called the Christopher Tucker Memorial Shield. We ask the Mini owners taking part to pick their favourite Mini. By the way his Mum & Dad now have a Mini and take part in our events.

In 2003 we had a(-nother) silly idea. We wanted to let everyone see where their money went and who it was spent on. We now take a convoy of 300 very noisy little Mini's into the Children’s Hospice SW, believe it or not. We do not stop but just drive up to the door, go around their roundabout the wrong way hooting and waving at everyone there. We let everyone see that the Children’s Hospice is so full of life. We have now made the Children’s Hospice special to a lot of Mini owners.

Now we have set up our our own appeal. We helped to build a new wing in the Hospice. We called it Issi's Messy Play Area. Now we have a new mission. A lot of the children who stay at the hospice use wheelchairs, so if any of them want to go out to the shops they have to use the sunshine coach and that can take ages to get sorted. So, with your help, we are going to try and raise enough money to buy a car that has been converted to take a wheelchair. We are also going to buy portable oxygen generators that looks like a shoulder bag. They are so light they give freedom back to the child who has to use it.

You can find out more about the Hospice by visiting their website at http://www.chsw.org.uk/