A well-known and loved member of the community’s name continues to live on, as a group of friends come together in May to remember Paulton resident, Jeff Mountjoy. In tribute to Jeff, they are continuing his work of raising funds for Dorothy House, who helped him towards the end of his life, and this year, on a biking theme, the group will also be donating money to the Freewheelers Blood Bikes.

Jeff Mountjoy’s Big Ride Out will now be in its third year, but this year’s will be especially poignant, as it is the first without Jeff. Diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer in January 2014, the village school caretaker was only given weeks to live. Spurred on by this devastating news, Jeff decided to live as fully as he could and to raise money for a charity that he knew would be helping him in his final days. He beat the odds to survive another eighteen months, attending last year’s Ride Out just a month before his death. This year, his widow, Jenny, will take pride of place at the head of the biker convoy, having never been on a bike before. She says: “Jeff threw himself into fundraising after receiving the news. Firstly, he organised a Motown night at Paulton Rovers, which raised £9,000 alone. He was amazed – and just kept on going. He raised over £18,000.

“Dorothy House were wonderful to us. It is not a place where everything is dark and tragic – they made his final days the best they could possibly be. They even made him beer ice lollies in the summer. It was the best you could possibly hope for in such circumstances.

“It is really heartwarming that this event is carrying on in his name and I do really appreciate it. I know the school has been fundraising as well. Everybody loved Jeff.”

The Ride Out was set up by biker, Rich Francis, who is hoping to make this year’s event, which takes place on Saturday, 7th May, the biggest and best yet. It centres around Paulton Rovers, Jeff’s local, and the family friendly event will have something going on all day, so everyone is welcome. From 11 a.m. there will be stalls, with refreshments on the football pitch, a bouncy castle and slide and plenty more, with a disco from 6.30 p.m., and popular band, El Toro, playing from 9 p.m. The event is completely free, with no tickets needed – all the organisers ask is that you donate generously! If readers are unable to make it on the night, but would like to donate, they can do so by dropping money in to Paulton Rovers. In the first year alone, the event raised £2,000 and last year’s raised £4,000.

2015’s event saw eighty bikers join the Ride Out, which will leave Paulton Rovers this year at 1 p.m., taking around three hours to complete. Riders must have a minimum of 125cc to keep up on the route, which will travel to Shepton Mallet, Castle Cary and Wincanton, with a stop at Stourhead, then through Maiden Bradley, Frome, Norton St Philip and back to Paulton Rovers.

Keeping the biker theme, this year some of the money raised will also be going to Freewheelers, the completely voluntary service which provides a free courier arrangement for hospitals to transport blood, breast milk, patient notes, x-rays, scans and other medical equipment to wherever it is needed in the area. No money changes hands at any point – the service is completely free and the bikers are not paid by the hospitals. The charity also receives no funding whatsoever.

The team of dedicated volunteers cover a huge radius, from the local area out towards Thornbury, Devizes, Taunton and Minehead, working from 7 p.m. – 7 a.m. during the week, with a 24-hour service during weekends, bank holidays and even Christmas Day – in all weathers. Crucially, they now also assist ambulance services to get vital blood supplies to the scene of road accidents. Of the 36 call-outs they have had to attend as part of this service, 35 people survived, with ambulance crews having said that sixteen of those would have died without the assistance of the Freewheelers.

You don’t have to be a biker to offer your services to the Freewheelers, as they still need co-ordinators to cover phones and help with fundraising. At the moment, there are eight bikes in the South West area, with riders covering shifts on a rota, many of which also have day jobs. Most of the fundraising is needed just to keep the bikes on the road, which are serviced by the police force.

The charity began in Ireland in 1990, with 89% of the UK now covered by voluntary teams. Members of the local team will be available at the Big Ride Out event if anyone would like to find out more or visit: www.freewheelers.org.uk

The organisers would like to thank Paulton Rovers FC for being so generous and supportive. Anyone wishing to book a stall can contact Des Loader on: 01761 417487.