Komatsu Ride for Child Cancer Foundation
Nine-year-old Nixon Brown, a leukemia survivor, has invited every trail bike rider in NZ to join him on the day he goes riding with Motorcycle Hall of Fame legend Sean Clarke
It’s going to be a special day. The 17 times national Enduro champion has secured a private forest north of Taupo where trail bike riding first started 50 years ago.
On Sunday, 23 June, the pair will ride with more than 400 other off-roaders in the Komatsu Ride for Child Cancer Foundation on trails varying in length from 2 to 35km.
Adult riders will donate $40 each, and those under 15, $25 to the Foundation to be able to ride all day from 9am to 3.30pm through the historic pine forest.
Nixon’s uncle, Spencer Raynel, a keen rider, has made it all happen through a programme called Live Your Dream run by Komatsu for employees who want to support worthy causes.
Komatsu has given Spencer $10,000 to pay for the day, but Spencer has found sponsors to cover the costs, enabling the Komatsu contribution to become the foundation of a major fundraising campaign.The programme has won complete support of all Komatsu employees who are actively backing each of the recipients.
"Companies like Pirtek, Blackwood Yamaha, Lubricants NZ Ltd, and Stellar Recruitment Ltd, have willingly supported us, and Sean Clarke has given us his time and the support of his company Forest Trail Events," Spencer says.
Nixon Brown, the youngest of his family’s three boys, was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was just three years old and his illness put a large strain on his family.
"The Waikato branch of Child Cancer Foundation stepped right in and supported the whole family," Spencer says.
"Every week, three New Zealand children are diagnosed with cancer and the Foundation supports more than 1700 families."
Nixon is one of the survivors. After a treatment plan of three-and-a-half years, Nixon is now two-and-a-half years post treatment and he now delights in riding his trail bike, a KTM 65, with his uncle.
But riding with Sean Clarke, the country’s most decorated international Enduro and Trail bike competitor, will be a special treat.
"I’m really looking forward to riding with Nixon," Sean says. "We’ll start on the kids’ track, but we might move up to the 10km loop."
The event will run in a privately-owned forest north of Taupo, which will be signposted from SH1, three kilometres south of Atiamuri "close to where Roger White started the sport in the 1960s."
"We’re not racing on the Komatsu day—just riding for the fun of it," Sean says.
For more information, contact Spencer on 027 405 3092, and Sean and his wife Adele on 027 599 6046.
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