TWO retired friends are driving a refurbished ambulance 4,000 miles to an African hospital.

Doug Nixon, 62, and Barry Folds, 64, have been restoring the vehicle since February and will set off for the Plymouth-to-Banjul Challenge on January 9.

Their aim is to get to Banjul, in Gambia, and donate the ambulance, medical supplies and spare vehicle parts to the Royal Victoria Hospital.

Medics there will use it to transport patients to and from a clinic 200 miles away in Georgetown.

Mr Nixon, who used to restore vintage and veteran cars for a living, said: “We are going to make every effort possible to get it down there because they are very desperate for it in Gambia.”

The Cressing resident and Mr Folds, a retired printer, of Wharf Road, Heybridge, were inspired by Mr Nixon’s son Ian, who drove an old Ford Escort – decorated in Tellytubbies wallpaper – for the Plymouth-to-Banjul Challenge in January 2006.

The friends bought the ambulance, which has covered 400,000 miles already, on an internet auction site and have transformed it from a wreck into a roadworthy vehicle.

If they succeed, Mr Nixon’s family and friends have promised to donate money to the oncology unit at Essex County Hospital in Colchester and the Helen Rollason Heal Cancer Charity, because it is a cause close to his heart.

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