A team of veteran scooter riders are heading to Weymouth on an epic 2500 mile trip around Britain to raise money for a cause close to their hearts.
Dave Harrison and Alex Bateman, who are from Weymouth, will be joining Sussex couple Henry Smith and Alison Bowen on a journey around the coast of mainland Great Britain on 60-year old Italian scooters, to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society.
As part of the tour, the team will be stopping at 28 towns that were the venues for scooter rallies in the 1980s.
Alison Bowen has described how this fundraising tour will not only be a nostalgia trip for the group, but will also raise awareness on a disease which has touched many of their family members.
She said: "My partner Henry's mum died of Alzheimer’s in 2021. The disease is a horrible thing. He wanted to do something in recognition of the work that the Alzheimer's Society do for dementia sufferers.
"We brainstormed and then we thought of the scooter rallies which were popular in the 80s. We came up with the idea of visiting every single one of the towns who hosted scooter rallies from 1981 to 1989."
The couple are friends with some of the members of the Lowriders Scooter Club Dorset, and upon hearing about the challenge Dave and Alex immediately put themselves forward due to their own family experience with dementia.
The tour will take place from August 14 to 23 starting at Brighton and then passing through to Brighton, Clacton, Skegness, Whitley Bay, Fort William, Girvan, Southport, Porthcawl and Newquay, arriving in Weymouth on Thursday, August 22.
The final stop will be when the team reach the Isle of Wight National Scooter Rally – still the biggest scooter rally in the world.
The team are hoping to fundraise as much as possible for the charity while also hoping to bring together other scooterists across the region.
Alison added: "We are calling our trip the ‘Before We Forget’ tour as we want to meet new people and reunite with old friends around the country, not just for sponsorships or donations, but to get together, possibly even to ride together, and to remember the good (and bad) old days Before We Forget!
You can donate to the fundraiser and find out more about the tour by going to the website: https://beforeweforget.uk/the-tour
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