Great Vintage Tractor Tour 2024 - John o' Groats to Land's End

4_th May 2024 - 25_th May 2024

ireland

The Challenge!

A group of friends from Co. Cork are set to travel the length of the UK in vintage tractors in May 2024 to raise funds for CRITICAL. They will embark on a 22-day challenge travelling from John o’ Groats to Lands End, taking in a total of 1,400 miles or 2,240km. The group will be driving a 1952 Nuffield DM4, a 1964 Fordson Super Major, a 1984 Ford 7610 and a 1978 Leyland 2100. In 2022, the group completed the Malin to Mizen Head challenge in memory of their friend Joe Butler and decided soon afterwards that the UK run would be their next challenge.

The Charity

CRITICAL is one of Ireland’s leading emergency medical response charities and is rapidly expanding its network of volunteer responders to towns, villages and cities across Ireland. CRITICAL is entirely funded by donations from the public and has teams of doctors, paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and community first responders who volunteer and give up their time to attend serious and life threatening emergencies and illnesses in their local areas.

The charity was first established in 2009 as Irish Community Rapid Response and in 2019 it successfully launched Ireland’s first and only charity Air Ambulance. The charity consistently showed how vital the helicopter service is, so much so that it is now fully funded and provided by the state.

In 2023 the charity began to trade as CRITICAL, it now has 10 doctors across the country who volunteer with CRITICAL. They are consultants, specialists in emergency medicine, and GPs who are based in Mayo, Donegal, Dublin, Wicklow and Waterford. CRITICAL has provided these doctors with an emergency vehicle and the equipment necessary to care for the sickest and most seriously injured patients. They are tasked by the National Ambulance Service (NAS) to road traffic collisions, cardiac arrests, farming accidents and other major trauma within 30km of where they live.

In recent months CRITICAL has agreed a partnership with the National Ambulance Service that sees NAS Staff Off-Duty Responders volunteering with the charity whilst responding to potentially life-threatening emergencies in their local communities. The paramedics and EMTS attend 999 calls in their local area when they are off-duty. CRITICAL has provided each responder with an Emergency Backpack containing a defibrillator, a resuscitation kit and a medical diagnostic kit at a cost of €1,500. These responders are based in numerous locations including Cavan, Sligo, Donegal, Cork, Kerry and Waterford.

CRITICAL has also successfully launched its first Community First Responders (CFR) group, with more groups due to come online in the coming weeks and months. The CRITICAL West Limerick CFR group is made up of seven volunteers who are local to Newcastle West and surrounding areas. They are available to respond to life-threatening emergencies including cardiac arrest, chest pain, stroke and choking incidents, providing basic but essential emergency care until an ambulance arrives at the scene. The group responded to 999/112 calls to 15 patients in their first calendar month alone. 

For more information about CRITICAL visit criticalcharity.ie

The Great Vintage Tractor Run 2024 aims to support CRITICAL's mission to empower communities to save lives by raising awareness as well as vital funds.

Please donate what you can.