TWO friends from Weymouth took part in an international car rally, crossing 14 countries in a week and raising £4,600 for Corfe Mullen charity Julia’s House.

Darren Smith, from DPS painting services, and Lee Nutman, who works at from Crystal Clear Window Cleaning, competed in the Motoscape Rally in September, covering over 4000 miles in a Skoda Octavia the pair paid £200 for and decorated themselves.

Lee said: “Starting in the UK on Friday September 6 we left and headed to France via the tunnel, from France we went onto Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and finally Poland.

“On route we drove up and down three mountains in the alps in a day, visited the Ferrari museum in Italy and encountered the Nürburgring raceway on the return leg after the rally had been completed.”

The pair said that if they reached certain fundraising targets that Darren would have his 25-year-old ponytail cut off and Lee would have his head shaved, including his eyebrows.

Jack Speary from Barber Jacks was only too happy to chop and shave the two men after they achieved their goals.

On Wednesday November 27, the pair had a tour of Julia’s House, the hospice they were raising money for, and met some of the children being helped there. They handed over a big cheque along with two bags of books and toys for the children too.

Lee added: “We chose Julia’s House children’s hospice because it’s local to us, it’s for very poorly children and it’s a volunteer-based charity.

“We had a lot of help from local businesses including DMS recovery, Chris Scard mechanics, Ozmo motorsports, Dowsetts, Kwik fit, Print shop and Topwash as well as a few others. We couldn’t have done it without the help from these guys.”