08:24, 13 May 2025
Words by Abi Scaife, Staff Writer, London
Sesame Street’s ‘Big Bird’ has completed a European tour to raise money for a local cancer charity.
Well, in a sense.
Two brothers, John and Mark Everett, from Leigh-on-Sea and Wickford in Essex, went on an epic road trip across Europe in an old car dressed up as Big Bird.
The car, which sports a fuzzy, yellow covering and Big Bird’s face hanging from the front, is an old banger, and attracted a lot of attention on their way through the continent!
The brothers joined forty other teams, covering 2,000 miles from London to Lisbon over four days, and completing challenges along the way.
“One of my favourite moments was entertaining a coach load of French tourists with us creating a service station disco with them dancing around the car park to the Birdie Song on our car PA system,” said Mark. “Our most challenging times was [sic.] fixing the mechanical issues we had on day one and day three with wheel bearing issues and limping to Lisbon with hardly any fuel due to power outages across Portugal.”
“But being crowned best banger car and raising over £2000 for Gold Geese has made it all worthwhile.”
Gold Geese is a local cancer charity that provides practical and emotional support to families of children and young people fighting cancer in South East Essex.
At Smiley Movement, we like to elevate the work of charities across the world. Here are three charities whose causes align with the themes in this article.
Macmillan Cancer Support. They provide specialist health care, information and financial support to people affected by cancer. Learn more here.
Cancer Research UK. This charity provides information for anyone affected by any kind of cancer. Support them here.
Maggie’s. Offers free practical, emotional and social support to people with cancer and the people important to them. Find out more here.
This article aligns with the UN SDG Good Health and Wellbeing, Partnership for the Goals.
