92-year-old to drive length of UK for Sierra Leone homeless

Most people dream of an easy life when they get old. But one 92-year-old Sheffield man is gearing up to drive the length of the UK in his old Ford Sierra to raise some much needed funds for the homeless in Sierra Leone.

Missionary Alex Paterson plans to drive from his Woodhouse home to the starting point in John O'Groats, and will then motor the 830 miles to Land's End before embarking on the return journey home. He is aiming to cover the total 1,740 miles in fewer than five days.

Mr Paterson regularly visits Sierra Leone as part of a missionary group that helps feed the homeless and disabled in the African country.

He explained: "When we first went there, we found homeless people in wheelchairs begging at the bus station in Freetown.

"The homeless in Sierra Leone aren't people who've just had enough of where they live and leave, they have lost their home and their families during the civil war and have nothing."

Tens of thousands of people died during the 11-year war that started in 1991 and, according to the CIA, two million people were forced from their homes.

Mr Paterson said that there were people working in the country from the House of Jesus for the Disabled to feed the homeless and disabled.

But he warned that the desperate situation was likely to worsen because funds were beginning to dry up.

He said: "Unless we get cash, we will struggle with a project to buy a farm so that the homeless and disabled can grow their own food and become self-sufficient.

"So I just knew I had to do something about it to try and raise some money, because we do need a lot of it."

Mr Paterson, who plans to resit his Institute of Advanced Motorists certificate, decided to use his 20-year-old Sierra to drive the length of Britain.

He will set off from Sheffield on September 9 in his 228,000-mile Ford, which he has owned since new.

"I'll be driving on my own," he explained. "I've had the car since February 1988 and I've never had a spot of bother with it in all that time."