We are a team of three:

• Paul Knowd, a Canberra dad of a daughter with cystic fibrosis
• John Monk, a supportive friend, and
• Leon Down another Canberra dad of daughter with CF

We have entered the 2008 Cystic Fibrosis Great Escape, a charity rally bash type event.

We are now approaching local individuals, identities and businesses we hope may be willing to support our entry.

You can read all about the Great Escape at www.thegreatescape.org.au

And you can read about CF at www.cysticfibrosisaustralia.org.au

The whole purpose of the great Escape is to raise money and public awareness for CF. One of the conditions of entry in the Great Escape is rasing an entry donation of $2700. All this money we collect goes directly to Cystic Fibrosis Australia, a registered charity, is fully tax deductible and is used to support the National CF Data Registry. The data registry is fundamental in supporting research into CF. The Australian CF Data registry is recognised as one of the best in the world and is supported by the CF community and fundraising efforts like the Great Escape. It receives no government assistance.

We first entered the Great Escape in 2004. With the support of our sponsors we raised just on $3,000 for CF. The fun part came through making public spectacles of ourselves and getting CF noticed wherever we went.

In 2004 we were dressed as three nuns and our car was a bright yellow 1974 Datsun 240K. . We were young and foolish, we knew no better. Car 56 - our lucky number - 65 backwards. 65 Roses is the slogan for CF. The bright yellow body work made a great background for displaying sponsors names and yellow was easy to find when we got hopelessly lost.

As we bumped and bounced around Australia we got plenty of exposure for our sponsors, boosted the public profile of CF, entertained some people and had a great time into the bargain.

In 2004 the Great Escape started from Wangaratta. It started without us. We had ‘technical problems’ with the car and missed the start line on day one. We went on to get lost then bogged and missed both lunch and dinner on day one. When we finally arrived at our first night’s destination we were welcomed by a standing ovation….or it may have been a mass raspberry.

Over the following days we got lost. Well not really lost - we knew where we were - it was just that no one else knew where we were from time to time.

• We got bogged – repeatedly.
• We broke the car – we fixed the car.
• We caught fire.
• A wheel fell off - at 100 kph….an interesting moment.
• We broke the car – we fixed the car.
• But we never NEVER !! gave up. It was just like living with CF.
• And at the end of it all?….We came stone motherless last.

But we are not in the Great Escape to win. We are there to boost the public awareness for CF, raise a little of money for CF and score a bit of exposure for our sponsors. And it makes a great escape for us from the daily grind that is CF - easy for us - not so easy for our daughters.

While it served us well the 240K was not really up to the challenges of the Great Escape. We learnt the hard way. Older but no wiser, for 2006 we ‘acquired’ an XF Falcon.

The Falcon is ideal. It was cheap ha! It is common. It is usually reliable and it is simple. It is just like us!!

We began making the Falcon ‘Escape Proof’ for 2006….Idiot proof is taking a little longer.

Sadly we missed the 2006 Great Escape.

Life got in the way. Paul was sent to India to do volunteer work for his church, John was laid low with not one but two knee reconstructions rendering him legless and cashless (poor bastard).

All was not lost. We arranged to pass on what sponsorship we had earned to another local team, also facing sponsorship problems, and from the ashes of two teams we saved one.