Every year at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, charity trailer rides take passengers around the heavy haulage arena and collect funds for charities. This year, organisers have chosen to support MacMillan and The Alfie O’Neill Cerebral Palsy Treatment Fund.
Throughout the event, which runs from 2 – 6 September, the trailer rides will offer the visiting public the chance to get up close and personal with the engines and activities whilst contributing to worthy causes. The trailers are pulled by all varieties of engines by many dedicated enginemen, and their crew.
Every day, 14 people in Dorset hear the news that they have cancer and there are already more than 30,000 people in the county living with cancer. The total number of people living with cancer in Dorset will almost double by 2030, affecting enough people to fill the AFC Bournemouth football ground five-and-a-half times. Money raised from the trailer rides will go straight to Macmillan to help those people living with cancer in Dorset.
The Alfie O’Neill Treatment Fund is raising funds for a little boy who brings love, laughter and tears to everyone who knows him. Unfortunately, Alfie was born prematurely and as a result suffers from cerebral palsy, which has confined him to a wheelchair. Alfie had Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy surgery in May 2014, which is not available on the NHS and was fully funded by donations. He now requires intense physiotherapy to ensure the operation is successful and money raised from the trailer rides will go towards keeping this important part of Alfie’s treatment going.
Rides are £2 for adults and a £1 for children, and the trailers are equipped to take wheelchairs. All proceeds will go the charities. The trailer rides can be found at the gates by the top and bottom corners of the heavy haulage arena and will aim to start at 10am daily – until there are no queues.
To find out more about these charities, please visit www.macmillan.org.uk and https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Alfie-ONeill-Cerebral-Palsy-Treatment-Fund/136153109762763.
