Oxfordshire's Twin Town Challenge 2020+2 open for entries
Organisers of Oxfordshire's highly anticipated charity fundraiser Twin Town Challenge 2020+2 have announced new dates for the postponed charity event and released an additional 50 places. A year today (29 April), a fleet of £500 cars will leave Blenheim Palace destined for Le Touquet.
Twin Town Challenge 2020 was cancelled when COVID struck but the teams are revving up their engines ready for the rearranged event now taking place in 2022.
The event takes place from 29 April to 2 May 2022 when cars costing less than £500 will drive to Witney’s twin town of Le Touquet, France for a weekend of fun challenges to raise money for Charlbury based charity SpecialEffect. Only 2 of the original 100 teams have been forced to pull out and, as interest in the event continues to gain momentum, the extra 50 places will enable even more teams to take part.
The highlight of the event is a street party with live bands in the centre of town when the Twin Towners are joined by the residents of Le Touquet. The event will finish back at Blenheim Palace on Monday 2 May.
The Twin Town Challenge is organised by Brendon Cross, MD of Witney based STL Communications and Hexagon Business Centres and a SpecialEffect Vice President.
Brendon said: “We are delighted that all our sponsors and teams have waited another 2 years to take part in this amazing spectacle. This is the final ever Twin Town Challenge and the more cars that participate, the more likely it is that we will hit our fundraising target for SpecialEffect of over £1m. All the costs of the event will be covered by sponsorship, which means that every pound paid by the teams in entry fees as well as the fundraising by the teams, goes straight to the charity.”
Teams are already starting to plan their car decoration and fancy dress based on the theme of ‘Battle of the Bands’. They compete for points with a programme of fun challenges in and around Le Touquet including a day at Abbeville circuit.
Brendon adds, “We’re looking forward to seeing people dressed as Abba, Village People, Spice Girls and Queen driving around northern France in London taxis and stretched limos as well as more ordinary vehicles specially decorated for the event.”
The Twin Town Challenge will raise money for Charlbury based SpecialEffect who put the fun and inclusion back into the lives of those with physical disabilities using technology ranging from modified joy-pads to eye-control. This is the fourth and final event which, since the inaugural Twin Town Challenge in 2016, has raised £800,000 for the charity.
Despite the restrictions imposed by the pandemic during the last twelve months, it has been business as usual for SpecialEffect. Their specialist assessment teams have switched from face-to-face visits with disabled people throughout the UK to remote support.
Stewart, who spent the first few months of 2021 in an Intensive Care Unit recovering from a respiratory infection, is one of the people who have benefitted from their services. Having suffered a spinal cord injury many years previously, Stewart has no movement in his hands and arms and the limited visiting due to COVID restrictions made his days seemed endless. SpecialEffect was able to transform his quality of life by the introduction of a computer he could control by moving his head and chin. He was quickly able to reconnect with friends and family online, catch up on favourite TV and radio shows, and follow his favourite football team again.
Steve Neal of Oxford based Shaw Gibbs, who has taken part in previous Twin Town events, said, “What thrills me about Twin Town is the inclusivity. Everyone feels like they’re part of an amazing cause – SpecialEffect – and that inclusivity is precisely what SpecialEffect offers to people of any age who might otherwise feel they are unable to enjoy gaming with their mates or even change TV channel by themselves.”
