Subaru's Charity Cycle Ride Begins

Subaru's fundraising campaign for the people of Japan has has started, with a nationwide cycle relay from Cornwall to Inverness, covering 3500 miles and involve the entire dealer network.

For the first leg of the journey, Chairman of the company Lord Edmiston, Group Managing Director Andrew Edmiston, Subaru UK’s new Managing Director Darren James and Operations Director Paul Tunnicliffe rode from Subaru's UK headquarters in Coleshill to local dealer Carstins at Balsall Common, nine miles away.

Subaru is hoping the cycle relay will raise awareness of the campaign, with each dealership raising individual sponsorships for their own leg of the journey. Distances to be discovered range from 15 to 130 miles covering the UK and a trip to Northern Ireland.

The cycle relay is expected to take more than two months, finishing in mid-October 2011.

The Association for Aid Relief Japan (AAR) has been chosen as the charity partner, with money raised going to mobile clinic services which provide paramedics, nurses and medical supplies to people displaced by the earthquake. Paul Tunnicliffe also visited the AAR offices in Tokyo last month, meeting the team who work first hand with the mobile clinic services.

Lord Edmiston said: "While for some, the devastating earthquake that hit northern Japan in March may have disappeared from the news agenda, the relief efforts are still in the early stages and are scheduled to take three to five years to complete.

"We are a relatively small operation in comparison to other Japanese car makers and so at Subaru UK we wanted in particular to achieve two things with our fund raising efforts; we wanted to identify a specific project in Japan that we could support and where there would be real, tangible benefits and secondly because we have a small network we were keen to involve as many of our dealers as possible. I'm delighted that the vast majority are involved with the project and will be doing their bit for this worthwhile cause."

Subaru is also offering a new Subaru Outback 2.5 SE Lineartronic worth £28,075 as a competition prize. Customers can enter by visiting a local Subaru dealership to buy a ticket or text their answer to a question which will feature on the side of the car, which will be used a support vehicle throughout the relay, carrying spare bikes and parts. It has been fitted with a GPS navigation system which can be tracked via Subaru's website.