2023: A year of farmers achieving amazing feats for charity

Throughout 2023, farmers have reached new milestones in their charitable efforts, raising much-needed funds and awareness for a host of deserving causes.

We look at some of their brilliant achievements.

See also: Midlands farmers prepare to row the Atlantic for charity

The Pink Ladies tractor road run

This year, the Pink Ladies celebrated two milestones – 20 years of its tractor procession in aid of Cancer Research UK’s breast cancer appeal, and exceeding its whopping £1m fundraising target.

The annual women’s tractor run took place in July and saw a convoy of more than 200 pink-clad vehicles travel through south Norfolk and north Suffolk on a 20-mile route, raising £201,000 and taking the total funds raised over 20 years to £1.1m.

Pink Ladies founder Annie Chapman said: “This year was very special. To have more than 200 ladies turn up was just incredible.

Because we are in such a rural area, everybody knows somebody who has done the run, or has had breast cancer, and is in some way connected – it is a community.”

To mark the year’s achievements, Annie has produced a book, also titled The Pink Ladies, detailing the history of the tractor run and including the stories of the women involved.

“It has a range of stories – some very sad, some very funny, and many that are very inspirational,” said Annie.

The book can be purchased online from The Great British Bookshop, and proceeds will go to charity.

The combine challenge

In June, a team of farmers from the North West comprising Olly Harrison, John Branson, James Baldini and Martin Williams, became the first people to drive a combine harvester from John O’Groats to Land’s End.

They raised more than £100,000 for two charities: Mind and Children with Cancer UK.

Known as the “Combine Challenge”, the epic journey covered a 900-mile route in Olly’s Claas Lexion 8700 combine, covering about 200 miles a day in the first week of June.

As the combine travelled across the country, the team asked farmers to “answer as a percentage” to describe how they were feeling, hoping to make it easier to strike up conversations about mental health.

The journey, avoiding motorways, put 49.5 engine hours on the clock and, to make the challenge as environmentally friendly as possible, the combine was fuelled by 1,593 litres of renewable hydrotreated vegetable oil.

“I think we’re up to about £106,000 raised to date,” said Olly, “It was amazing, we couldn’t believe the support from people coming out to wave us on and wish us well and meet us.

“The mental health awareness was the main thing, really – it was about getting people to talk, and we know it has worked.

“With some of the messages we’ve had over the past few months, you can almost guarantee that doing this has saved some lives.”

Although there are at present no solid plans, Olly is determined to arrange another fundraiser for next year.

He said: “We definitely want to do something every year. I don’t know what we’ll do next, but it’s going to be something bigger and better.”

Len’s Light

Andy and Lynda Eadon of Napton, Warwickshire, have transformed the way rural communities think and speak about mental health with their heartfelt campaign to make sure nobody feels isolated or alone.

Known as Len’s Light, the campaign in memory of their much-loved son Len, who took his own life aged 22 on New Year’s Day 2022, kicked off with a marathon tractor journey from John O’Groats to Land’s End.

Taking a 2,000-mile route across the country, the tractor relay stopped off at livestock markets, country shows, Harper Adams University, and even the Houses of Parliament, while Andy and Lynda raised funds for The Farming Community Network, Yellow Wellies, and Papyrus charities.

“It is brilliant how people have engaged with us. The closer we got to Land’s End, the more momentum it gained – we had an incredible welcome,” said Andy.

“Lynda and I feel very humble that people are now pulling events together on our behalf under the Len’s Light umbrella all across the country. The tractor relay has allowed us to lay a foundation for the work we want to do.”

Aside from the relay, the pair also created a wallet-sized card featuring a “Five-a-Day” mental health challenge to encourage discussion around mental health. They have so far distributed nearly 20,000 of them.

Andy and Lynda have even bigger plans for the new year. “The plan is for Valentine’s Day, 14 February,” explained Andy. “This coincides with Mind Your Head Week, and it would have been Len’s birthday.

“I’ve spoken to the NFU and my local MP, and the idea is for nine tractors to go from Warwickshire into the City of London.

“We’re calling it the ‘Mind Your Head Respect Tour’, and the idea is we want to pull the rural community into the city and raise respect for the farming industry. The message is ‘please reach out and grasp our hands’.”

Andy plans for each of the tractors to be illuminated, and for the top of each of the cabs to have a letter to spell out “Len’s Light”.

Christmas charity tractor runs

As Christmas draws closer, festive tractor runs are taking place up and down the country.

A firm favourite for many, the Sheepy Ploughing tractor run, on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 December, is set to cover two routes around Warwickshire with a display of fairy-light clad tractors.

Organiser Charles Goadby said: “This will be the fourth year of doing it, and the tractor run has always been a huge success locally.

“When we go through the town, it is absolutely chocker. We go through villages in the middle of nowhere, yet there will still be hundreds of people out there along the route.

“It has become an absolute local tradition, the council are really supportive and always encourage us.”

A competitive bunch, local farmers joining the procession have been known to take tractor decoration very seriously:

“Every year they try to out-do each other and be the best-dressed tractor on the run. There were three last year that had been out and bought snow blowers to blow on the crowd as they’re going along”, Charles said.

“Everybody just looks forward to it so much. When we’re going along you see kids on little pedal tractors with fairy lights wrapped all around them, waiting in the middle of towns.

“We have to keep inspiring them about farming and thinking about food.”

Raising funds for three worthy causes, Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital, the local air ambulance, and Len’s Light, Charles says that the Len’s Light tractor will hopefully join the procession, but that alongside fundraising, the run is an important opportunity to share positive farming stories with the public.

“I make a big point that as much as it is about raising money for charity, it is also about thanking the public for supporting farming throughout the year.”

The Brightsides Row

Farmers doing amazing things for charity will be a continuing theme in 2024 – not least when the Brightsides rowers get into their stride in January.

Midlands turkey grower Rod Adlington and arable farmer Guy Minshull are taking part in the Atlantic Dash, setting off from Lanzarote on 3 January, aiming to cover the 3,000-plus miles to Antigua with rowing partners Anna Williams and Alex Perry.

Rowing “two on, two off” 24 hours a day, the crew hopes to complete the journey in about six weeks, raising funds for cancer charity Get A Head and Meningitis UK, in memory of Rod’s son Barney, who died 21 years ago, aged just three.

“It was on Saturday 19 March 2005 that Barney first complained of a headache,” Rod said. “Less than 24 hours later, and despite the undivided attention of the best medical teams, he had died from meningitis.”

Rod has since taken on many challenges and organised events to raise considerable sums for charities.

Farmers Weekly is proud to be a media partner. Read Rod and Guy’s full story and please consider a donation via thebrightsidesrow.com