The headline news is that we have passed the magic £4,000,000 total donated in the 10 years from our first Egyptian adventure in 2010 up to and including the recent magnificent Vietnam ride. The grand total is now £4,005,285 as you can see on the homepage at thetruantsuk.com with all three of our charities now having received well over £1,000,000 each. Since our last dinner the Truants have raised £1,106,336. You will find a congratulatory communication to you all from the one and only Roger Daltrey here.

The final total to pass on to our Charities for Vietnam is £790,000 which is exceptional considering that our original target was £800,000 but that was when we had 48 riders set to go. Sadly we lost a few along the way but the fabulous 40 still nearly pulled it off so well done everyone, a tremendous job!

Click here for a breakdown of the numbers.

As we like to keep a competitive edge on things, also, we have a list of all the PLATINUM, GOLD AND SILVER AWARDS  and all your totals. Another record breaking effort with more awards than ever especially in the very elite PLATINUM division! These totals for the certificates (which will be awarded when we reschedule the dinner) include everything “earned” since the last ride which includes allocated amounts based on contribution from HMT rides, Golf Days and the Sanctum dinners.

I don’t think I need to say here how much we all enjoyed the ride or the great satisfaction of helping kids in need. Nor do I need to go into detail of the massive appreciation of the charities.

Helen has the full website updated so you’ll be able to send your final message with the link to your generous donors to advise them the final total donated and giving them the stories, pictures and of course the video of the ride.

Ryan Chang did us proud on the video which you will find here so sit back in wonderful isolation, hopefully with some family, and enjoy. I think you will all agree that he did a great job!

We are of course in hiatus while the world works out a way to return to something approaching normal. The Heavy Metal Truants ride in June is cancelled and we are looking at options for later in the year , but we are hopeful that our Golf Day will still happen on Oct 2, 2020. Obviously no committee meetings or dinners planned for the foreseeable future.

Provisionally hold in your diaries Nov 22-29, 2021 when we intend to drink Buenos Aires dry. We will start firming this up and taking bookings soon.

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In closing firstly I would like to thank Helen who spends untold hours wonderfully keeping all this together and forever trying to train you all to use her magnificent website although we accept it’s a forlorn hope.

Of course we thank the Truants Committee (at least those who turn up!) especially Alex, Alan, Charles , Mark, Michael, Paul, Tom and Shacky for the specific contributions they so willingly make. And Gavin, Lee, Henke and Emma, Sen and the terrific Classic team for all their hard work.

And last, but certainly not least, Ruth, for her cheerful acceptance of all the hassle of keeping our accounts straight and accurate and detailed. Ruth has been with us since the very beginning, first at Nordoff and then independently whilst in retirement these last few rides. She was a vital and a totally dependable cog in our small voluntary organisation. Ruth is now sadly stepping down and we will sorely miss her. We will let you all know soon how we will cover this in future but for now suffice to say we have a few ideas. At least Helen and Charles have!

So well done everyone – if there is someone in the room with you have them pat you on the back and raise a toast to the Truants and celebrate a decade of “making a difference”.

Until we meet again (don’t know where , don’t know when) ………….take care of yourselves and your families and keep smart.

Rod

P.S It’s a tradition that we finish our dinners with a manic version of Bohemian Rhapsody so it would seem entirely appropriate to play this following the movie and return to reality!!