Guy and Eunice raise over £26,000 for Dame Hannahs

A Saltash couple have raised an amazing £26,311 for the Dame Hannah Rogers Trust. Guy Butcher and Eunice Kratky very generously donated their 1936/28 Austin 7 to Dame Hannahs as a major raffle prize in a Car Draw. Having driven their beloved car across the Americas they also wrote a book about their adventures and are donating all the proceeds to Dame Hannahs, a charity close to their hearts. The funds are still being donated so the final total is expected to be even more.

They drove the car from Baltimore to Alaska before turning south to Tierra del Fuego at the very bottom of South America and completed a total distance of 18,000 miles in 9 months. They were keen to raise funds to help young people with special or additional needs so they set up their own charity Bespk - Bringing Extra to Special Kids - through which they could support Dame Hannahs. Both Guy, a consultant orthodontist, and Eunice, a child development specialist health visitor, are retired but spent most of their professional lives working with children, particularly those with special and additional needs. Through their work they looked after many young people from Dame Hannahs and therefore decided to fundraise for the charity.

Guy Butcher said “We are overwhelmed with the amazing generosity and kindness of strangers, friends and family. An example of which is very special. We met a man called Bob Brandon on our adventure, who showed us around Butler, Pennsylvania, the home of the American Austin. Having spent the whole morning with us and given us lunch, he said that he and his wife were going to a Golden Wedding celebration that afternoon. He was sure that the couple wouldn't mind if we came too. So we had a very pleasant afternoon gate crashing the party. The week before the draw I received an email from the couple, requesting five raffle tickets. If they won they wished to place the Bespk Austin in the factory of the American Austin as a tribute to Bob Brandon who had died earlier last year.

We were delighted when Matt and Laura won the car as it was always our dream that a youngster would be the winner of the raffle. Both Matt and Laura are really excited about their win and appeared to really enjoy their first drive in the car around the local estate. Indeed the idea of them driving it back to their home in Gloucestershire is a wonderful way to start their custodianship of the car and its ongoing story. We are both overwhelmed with the amazing end to our part in the Bespk Austin”.

Dame Hannahs Head of Fundraising, Daniel Burke, said “The fundraising efforts of Guy and Eunice over the last year have been simply outstanding. When we first met to discuss their upcoming idea for fundraising in aid of Dame Hannahs I never expected that it would involve the raffling of their beloved Austin 7 which had taken them through the Americas. This extraordinary gift was already overwhelming but then being told they would also be donating all of the proceeds from their book ‘Austin 7 around the Americas’ which was written about their adventure, completely bowled me over. Since this point Guy and Eunice’s enthusiasm and commitment to raising these funds has been evident by the sheer scale of their total. On behalf of everyone at Dame Hannahs we cannot thank them enough for raising these much needed funds to support our young adults”.