"The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don't wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope" - Barack Obama
Over the past weeks there have been various exciting, new projects and adventures.
I've just got back from a fabulous weekend racing at Goodwood. The Goodwood track is one of my favourite historical tracks for driving and it's where I completed my racing licence over a year ago. It is also, of course, the venue for the now world-famous Festival of Speed and Revival weekends. The UK sadly doesn't have a car show to rival the likes of Geneva, Paris or Frankfurt and this paved the way for Lord March to create these astonishing weekends for car enthusiasts, racers and families that are now the envy of the world.
However as their popularity has increased, the larger and more commercialised it has become has slightly alienated the true enthusiasts and racers, especially of classic cars. So, Lord March decided to bring back the Goodwood Members meeting. There were 71 of these members meetings up until Goodwood was closed in 1966. The 72nd meeting this weekend was a part of the long tradition, however it has truly been brought into the modern era. The highlight of the meetings are the historic racing cars from all the different decades, but it was also how the true enthusiasts got to meet, share stories and car chat within a very intimate environment.
The top historic racers were there, including Stirling Moss and famous petrol heads like Chris Hoye (who was in the Jaguar team with me in the Mille Miglia last year), Chris Evans and Rowen Atkinson. The beautiful spring weather only added to the fun weekend and I was there in a different role to last year - as a part of a racing team. Despite me and driver Ben Cussons coming fourth in the race in his Jaguar C type, I hope we came in higher on the leader board for style, thanks to the tailoring of Simon Cundey of Henry Poole and Co. We were in sporting-style suits with a wool tweed called Worsted Alsport, showing how suits were adapted in history from riding, to driving, to racing. A very special weekend indeed.
When I was at the Christmas drinks/dinner for one of the charities I support, Style for Soldiers, I met Giles Duley. I'd heard of Giles as he was an editorial photographer for the likes of GQ, Esquire and The Times. However, the story that he went on to tell me is truly inspiring and who better to explain the whole story that the man himself, from this link.
In short, Giles turned from editorial photography to documentary photography, concentrating on people suffering the consequences of war and humanitarian issues. However in 2011 Giles stepped on an IED, amputating both his legs and leaving him with an arm beyond repair. He should have died, but by 2012 he was on his way back to Afghanistan photographing civilian casualties. What an incredible achievement.
His new project - *100 Portraits Before I Die - * focuses on his passion for portraiture and taking photographs of the many people who have influenced his life. It's a project to rebuild his career and his condifence and I was lucky enough to be one of the 100 people that he chose for the project. My new house came in handy and we shot for a couple of hours in the beautiful weather (yes, it doesn't always rain in London). Hearing stories like Giles's really puts many things into perspective and his determination and courage is a wonderful example to us all.
Lastly, and certainly not least, was the wonderful day at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home when I joined the other ambassadors to help lay the first cornerstone at a ceremony to celebrate the start of the building of the desperately needed, new dog kennels. They will become the new intake kennels and will comprise four blocks of 14 kennels. Each block will have its own laundry, clinic room, assessment room and kitchen which will help keep infection to a minimum. The current kennels haven't been designed with today's dogs' needs in mind (causing the new arrivals stress as well as harbouring disease).
The fortunes of these dogs will follow those of the cats, where rehoming increased by 30 per cent when the new cattery was built. This means they will be able to rehome more dogs each year, and more quickly, even though they have less kennels.
Obviously a project of this size does not come cheap. Remember, the home receives no government funding and the running of it all comes from donations. It already costs £12.7 million to run the three rehoming centres, which equates to £36,000 a day, and the new kennels are going to cost an extra £4.8 million. £2.9million has been raised by corporate companies, trusts and high-net worth individuals which leaves us with £1.9million to raise.
If you would like help donate then you can text DOGS to 70800 to donate £5. You can also donate on www.battersea.org.uk.
Big thanks in advance.
