Lord Montagu’s sister Mary Montagu-Scott waved off a festive convoy of over 100 classic and custom VWs as they left Beaulieu to deliver Christmas presents to youngsters at the Piam Brown unit at Southampton General Hospital.
Nearly 250 rally participants with 60 children lined up in the decorated VW campers as the Hon. Mary Montagu-Scott waved the chequered flag to start the New Forest VW Santa Run in the grounds of the National Motor Museum on Sunday 1st December.
Laden with gifts from kind donations, drivers were accompanied by motorcycle outriders as they headed to the unit for children and teenagers with cancer and haematological disorders. In the sixth annual charity run convoy, they also had enough presents for all of the children in the hospital this Christmas.
VW drivers got in the Christmas spirit by decorating their vehicles and themselves in festive attire. Mary presented prizes for the best dressed vehicle to Sammie McKay and Jessica Fudge, from Poole in Dorset, the best dressed dog to cockapoo Archie with his owner Graham Dyke, from Hedge End in Hampshire, and best dressed family to David, Raimonda, Sophia (nine years) and Ophelia (five months) Hargreaves-Putt, from Lulworth Cove in Dorset.
Event organiser Sgt Phill Ashby said: “We had so many gifts donated that Piam Brown will be able to give some to new patients throughout the year, so they can have something when they are low after treatment. There were still enough gifts that all of the children in the hospital will receive gifts too.”
Beaulieu will continue its festive celebrations with Victorian Christmas bringing the ancestral home of Palace House to life on the weekends of December 7th-8th, 14th-15th and 21st-January 1st.* Visitors can watch Montagu family members, played by costumed actors, as they rehearse Cinderella for the house pantomime in 1889. There will be a Christmas tree in every room of the house, mulled punch by a roaring log fire, carol singing, festive craft activities and a Christmas mice trail for families to follow. For tickets and details see www.beaulieu.co.uk or call 01590 612345. * Beaulieu will be closed on Christmas Day.
