TV’s Matt Baker has hailed a trailer firm for playing a “crucial part” in getting the 2021 Great Rickshaw Relay Challenge on the road.
Ifor Williams Trailers, who have factories in Corwen and Cynwyd in Denbighshire and Sandycroft and Deeside Industrial Estate in Flintshire, supplied the trailer which has been ferrying the bright yellow high-tech McLaren-made rickshaw from place to place during each leg of Matt’s fundraising venture in aid of BBC Children in Need.
Ifor Williams Trailers Children in Need Rickshaw Challenge 2021 Matt Baker with the IWT trailer
They made the flat-bed model to a bespoke design, specially wrapped in the colourful Children in Need and Great Rickshaw Relay Challenge livery.
The energy-sapping journey covers nearly 150 miles and is being recorded for a one-off documentary, The Great Rickshaw Relay Challenge, which will air on BBC One at 7.30pm on Wednesday, November 10.
Ifor Williams Trailers Children in Need Rickshaw Challenge 2021 Olivia Ruston arrives at Claire House Hospice, Bebbington with Matt Baker finishing her leg from Southport
The one-hour documentary will share the team’s remarkable individual stories and also celebrate the history of the much-loved BBC Children in Need staple event, at the same time as raising money to change young lives.
Since he first launched the event a decade ago Countryfile presenter Matt has helped raise more than £41million for BBC Children in Need and cycled more than 4,500 miles travelling the length and breadth of the UK.
Traditionally, the final stages of the rickshaw marathon would be filmed on BBC1’s The One Show, of which Matt was a long-standing presenter.
Ifor Williams Trailers Children in Need Rickshaw Challenge 2021 Olivia Ruston arrives at Claire House Hospice, Bebbington with Matt Baker finishing her leg from Southport
But he departed from the nightly show to help save his family’s organic sheep farm in the Durham hills where he grew up.
While working on the farm Matt first came into contact with Ifor Williams Trailers after he needed a trailer to transport livestock.
Ifor Williams Trailers Children in Need Rickshaw Challenge 2021 Matt Baker with the IWT trailer
So, when it came to finding a trailer for the Great Rickshaw Relay Challenge Matt said: “I knew exactly who to go to from the start.
“Ifor Williams Trailers is a brilliant company. Once we approached them and explained what we needed they really got into the spirit of this challenge.
“They provided us with exactly the right kind of trailer, a really superb model which is easy to handle.
“I was hugely impressed with the graphics that put it perfectly on brand with Children in Need - it’s colourful and bright and looks brilliant travelling through the landscape with the Rickshaw on board.
“Our crew take it everywhere and many people will have now seen it travelling around the motorways of the UK with our logos on it.
“We load the rickshaw onto it at the end of each leg of the relay, then use it to transport the rickshaw to the next location so it is there ready for the following day’s ride.
“Ifor Williams Trailers have played a crucial part helping us to get this challenge on the road. They are a firm who go all out to meet their customers’ needs, but more than that they put community at the heart of all they do. They have been brilliant with us every step of the way and I now count them as my friends.”
Ifor Williams Trailers Children in Need Rickshaw Challenge 2021 Olivia Ruston arrives at Claire House Hospice, Bebbington with Matt Baker finishing her leg from Southport
Rob Small, Head of Sales at Ifor Williams Trailers, said: “We were delighted to be able to help Matt with this wonderful fundraising event in aid of BBC Children in Need which provides vitally important funding to change young lives for the better.
“Matt is an all-round great guy and is rapidly turning into a national treasure and it was an honour to play our part in providing back-up support for the young rickshaw riders undertaking this tough but extremely worthwhile challenge.”
As Matt and the rickshaw team arrived at Claire House Children’s Hospice, Bebbington, on the Wirral, on the third leg of their journey local families and friends of the hospice turned out in force to greet them.
Live bulletins in which Matt gives daily updates of the rickshaw’s progress have aired on BBC’s Morning Live programme.
Over the course of a week Matt has delighted in meeting five inspiring young people who each take on their own home-town leg of the route.
To follow the team’s journey and show your support go to bbc.co.uk/pudsey and click The Rickshaw Challenge.
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