In May 2009 to coincide with Walk the Wight, Phil Smith and Steve Olding will be riding their motorbikes around Britain to raise money of the Earl Mountbatten Hospice & the IoW Motor Neurone Disease Association
Phil, a Police Sergeant based at Newport, IoW, has been riding motorbikes since 1971. In May 2008 Phil’s wife Bessie was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. Wishing to give something back in return to the support & treatment provided for Bessie by both the Hospice and the IoW MND Association, Phil decided to ride his bike around Britain in raise money for the two charities.
Steve, a Commercial Manager for BAE Systems at Waterlooville, Hants, has been friends with Phil since school & has been riding bikes even longer. Steve immediately accepted the challenge when Phil invited him to accompany him on the ride.
The Earl Mountbatten Connection
The Earl Mountbatten Hospice opened in 1982 following a public appeal in memory of the Island’s Governor, Lord Louis Mountbatten. Lord Mountbatten, or Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was a truly significant figure in 20th century British & world history. Phil & Steve’s route will visit places associated with Mountbatten and his illustrious career.
Grandson of Queen Victoria, uncle to the Duke of Edinburgh, & great-uncle to Prince Charles, Lord Mountbatten was born in 1900 at Windsor. Son of First Sea Lord Prince Louis Battenberg, and educated in Hemel Hempstead, Osborne Royal Naval Cadet College IoW, & Dartmouth Royal Naval College, Mountbatten served on Admiral Beatty’s flagship HMS Lion in WW1. After the war Mountbatten studied at Cambridge University before resuming his naval career, marrying in 1922 at St. Margaret’s Westminster. In WW2 he captained the destroyer HMS Kelly, built on Tyneside & later based at Portland, before becoming Head of Combined Operations responsible for setting up and training the Commandos. Later in WW2 Mountbatten became Supreme Commander South East Asia, and then Viceroy of India, handing over independence to India & Pakistan. In later life he became First Lord of the Admiralty. He died in 1979 while on holiday in the Republic of Ireland as a result of a bomb placed on his boat by the IRA. His funeral was held at Westminster Abbey and he is buried at Romsey Abbey, Hampshire.
The Trip
- Day 1 Osborne House IOW – RN Portland – Royal Naval College, Dartmouth
- Day 2 Dartmouth – Combined Operation Memorial site at the National Arboretum Burton on Trent
- Day 3 Burton on Trent to Inverary, Scotland where Commandos trained,
- Day 4 From Inverary to the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge
- Day 5 To Edinburgh - Rosyth, where HMS Lion was based in WW1 and on towards Hebburn where HMS Kelly was built & commissioned.
- Day 6 Hebburn – Cambridge
- Day 7 Cambridge - Hemel Hempstead - Windsor - Westminster
- Day 8 London - Romsey Abbey – Broadlands House Romsey – IOW
- Day 9 Walk the Wight (well not quite but Phil & Steve will be there)
The Earl Mountbatten Hospice 
Charity no. 1039086
The Hospice is a charitable trust providing palliative care to people suffering from terminal and life-limiting illnesses, both at the Hospice itself, and elsewhere on the Isle of Wight. The Hospice also provides relief to relatives and dependants, both before and after bereavement, particularly by providing counselling and palliative care education and training to nurses and others. For more information on the Hospice, its services and how you might help please visit www.earlmountbattenhospice.org.uk
Charity no. 294354
The Isle of Wight Branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association aims to serve the needs of all those on the Island who are affected by the disease. This includes people with MND, their carers, family and friends. MND is an incurable condition that affects the muscles of the body over a period of time. It can make most things we do everyday and take for granted almost impossible. It can affect the ability to move, walk, talk and swallow; yet the mind and senses are rarely affected. Visit www.mndiw.org.uk to find out more.
The IoW MND Association branch funded the provision of the “Possum” room at the Hospice, which was opened in 2007 by Sarah Duchess of York. This room features a range of environmental controls which allow maximum independence for the person staying in the room even if their mobility and limb function is limited. A special control panel and easy to manipulate switches control, for example, the lighting, air conditioning, TV, curtains and stereo.
Please help Phil & Steve to raise money for the Hospice and the IoW MND Association
It cost the Hospice £3.5m to provide its current level of care. About a third comes from an NHS grant but £2m has to be found from public generosity.
- £5 pays for an in-patient’s drugs for 3 days
- £120 provides a Day Care place for 1 day
- £500 feeds an in-patient for 1 week
- £1500 funds the Home Care Team for 1week
Please visit our Fundraising Page at www.justgiving.com/MountbattenMND
Thank You
