Dr Cor Hutton MBE, founder of the Paisley-based charity Finding Your Feet, will set off from Renfrewshire next week on a 3,000-mile charity drive across Europe.
Cor, a quadruple amputee who has two prosthetic legs, two transplanted hands, one third of a lung and received a kidney transplant in 2024, will drive a 19-year-old Audi TT from Glasgow to Nice and back.
The challenge will cover nearly 3,000 miles through ten countries over 12 days to raise money for Finding Your Feet, Scotland’s only nationwide charity supporting amputees, people born without limbs and their families.
The four-car convoy will depart at 9am on Tuesday, 11th August from Malcolm Group Head Office, Brookfield House, Burnbrae Drive, Linwood. A send-off drive-by will then take place at the Finding Your Feet Charity Hub in Paisley before the teams head south.
Cor lost both her hands and both her feet to sepsis in 2013. She founded Finding Your Feet after being unable to find the support she needed following her amputations.
The charity now provides peer support, counselling, wellbeing services and inclusive clubs and activities for amputees and their families across Scotland.
The route includes the Stelvio Pass in the Italian Alps, the Monaco Formula One circuit and the Côte d’Azur before finishing in Nice. The convoy is expected to return to Glasgow on Friday, 21st August.
Cor said: “I’m equally nervous and excited for this challenge. I’m concerned my wee beloved convertible is 19 years old, has 120k miles on the clock and might not get me home, and that would break my heart. Also, I’ve been thinking I’m just sitting on my bum having a laugh with Evie, seeing incredible sights and places and creating memories with Rory (who will surely dump me very soon for mates and/or a girlfriend).
“The reality of driving 8 to 10 hours every day will no doubt be backache, grumps, tiredness, and that’s without considering not being able to have legs-off days, and blisters. Then there’s potential car troubles. What if we can’t get home, stuck up in the Alps? We’ve paid it all ourselves, but costs could rocket, and on top of that, will we raise enough to secure our support for amputees for another year?
“If not, what would our Troopers do without Finding Your Feet? For many, we’re the only support they have. There’s the motivation, right there.”
Joining Cor on the journey will be Babs Poole, from Dundee, a double above-knee amputee following vascular disease and a peer support volunteer with Finding Your Feet. She will be accompanied by nurses from Ninewells Hospital.
Babs said: “Because of the amazing vascular team at Ninewells hospital. I have a much better quality of life which is why I am doing the banger rally. To prove to myself and other vascular amputees, that we will not be defined as amputees in chairs! I will push every boundary and live life to the full. With the help of the fantastic charity, Finding your Feet!!”
Cor will also be joined by her friend Evie Jackson and her son Rory, a mechanic apprentice at Arnold Clark Kia Linwood, who will act as the convoy’s unofficial mechanic. Evie’s son Indie will also make the full journey.
Donations can be made through the Finding Your Feet website, here: www.findingyourfeet.net/cors-banger-rally-donate.
Headline photo: Dr Cor Hutton MBE prepares to leave in her 19-year-old Audi TT ahead of her 3,000-mile charity drive from Glasgow to Nice and back to raise money for Paisley-based charity Finding Your Feet
Photo Credit: Finding Your Feet