letter from Paul Corcoran (From This Is Wiltshire)

letter from Paul Corcoran

3:14pm Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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FIFTEEN thousand bikers were humbled by the welcome and warmth of affection shown to them by the people of WooTton Basset and villagers along the route. For the contingent of 45 bikes driven by the Devon based members of Bikers Make a Difference ‘BMAD’ organisation, this had been a tough 13 hours on bikes with little respite. The journey was arduous, ranging from the bitterly cold to the blazing hot, involuntarily penned in with thousands of wobbly motorcycles, inching along for hours with jagged handle bars either side. We shuffled increasingly heavy bikes and their pillions forward a few feet at a time as muscles and goodwill became strained. This was no picnic.

The sheer physical scale of the gathering and number of bikers on the runway tarmac was astounding. The problem faced by the organisers was how to get 15,000 bikes safely through Malmesbury and WooTton Basset, which are ancient villages with old frost damaged roads, lying a good distance from the motorways. They managed it, and we didn’t get hurt in the queueing process.

But would any of the BMAD riders from Torbay have swapped an escape route for the smiling, applauding and flag waving they received from the residents of Wiltshire? No Way! Every biker attending made a decent contribution to the Afghan Heroes charity. But it became far more than simple giving. Every biker received a spontaneous and heart felt blessing by the Great British Public, and we will be moved by the memory of that experience for the rest of our lives.

PAUL CORCORAN BMAD Press Officer