Wiltshire trio cross India in rickshaw (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Wiltshire trio cross India in rickshaw

7:00am Saturday 13th December 2008 in News By Lewis Cowen

Bromham architect James Kilkenny and two former college buddies will be crossing India in the New Year to raise money for charity.

But they will be undertaking the trek in a seven horse-power rickshaw, or Tuk-Tuk, that has a top speed of 30mph downhill.

Mr Kilkenny, 27, from Durlett, and his two chums, Edd Rushton and Deniz Hassan, are not making things any easier for them by being dressed in English tweeds for the Rickshaw Run.

Mr Rushton and Mr Hassan are from Yorkshire but the three men were friends at Nottingham University.

They will set out from the southern tip of India on New Year’s Day and hope to cover the 2,000 miles to the foothills of the Himalayas in the far north in just two weeks.

Mr Kilkenny said: “We wanted to do the Mongol Rally but we couldn’t get enough time off work. The same organisation does the Rickshaw Run and we can manage two weeks.

“The rickshaw we will be using is designed for two people so we have been told we might have trouble when we get to hills. One of us will have to jump out and run beside it.

“It also has a tendency to break down, so we have been told to be prepared to spend a long time in the garage and have to make up time later on.

“We have been talking for some time about doing something like this, but the opportunity hasn’t arisen before.

“I have never been to India and I am very excited by the prospect. We are aware of the security problems but you can’t let that kind of thing rule your life.”

The three men are raising money for two charities that do work in India, Frank Water Projects, which provides sustainable clean water to communities, and Mercy Corps, which works with under-privileged people in India.

Mr Kilkenny is a student architect with London-based consultants OSCL Architecture.

To sponsor the intrepid trio and find out more about the Rickshaw Run go to http://rickshawrun09w.theadventurists.com/tweed