Prison officer Andy Maxfield’s attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for driving a lawn tractor from John O’Groats to Land’s End while raising money for Alzheimer’s Society is over. Andy and his support team, which included his daughters Kathryn and Kaitlyn, successfully completed the 874.3-mile ‘Driving the Distance for Dementia’ challenge in five days, eight hours and 45 minutes.
Andy hopes that Guinness will verify the attempt as he drove the whole distance on his own on an unmodified lawn tractor, which has not previously been attempted. “It was a fantastic team effort all round,” he said, “and we certainly raised awareness for Alzheimer’s Society and had some fun along the way. The advance planning went well and apart from a couple of detours on the journey, nothing really went wrong apart from the weather.”
Main support vehicle drivers, John Deere work placement students Joanne Gregory and Becca Watson, made him feel safe in some challenging traffic and weather conditions, but the driver reckons the real star of the challenge was the X750 lawn tractor. “It may not be built for the road or such wet weather conditions, but it never missed a beat and the spare parts we’d taken along just in case weren’t needed.”
At journey’s end they raised more than five times the initial fundraising target of £1,000. The new goal now is £10,000, and as an additional fundraiser for Alzheimer’s Society, a charity ball will take place at Preston Masonic Hall on Saturday December 9.
