A Maxi website for minis (smallcarsbighearts.co.uk)

Member Name: Mabelthemini

Product:	smallcarsbighearts.co.uk
Date:	14/01/09 (108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun,entertaining and fundraising

Disadvantages: none

www.smallcarsbighearts.co.uk is the website of the North Devon Mini Register. Contrary to the name the register has members from all over the country and the site was started to keep them in contact and to organise events. It has turned into so much more than that though.

Registration is free, only takes a minute, and then you become a official nutcase (as the members are known) As you post on the forum more your status rises all the way up to Nutcase -certified and sectioned. On the homepage there are links to the different sections -the forum,history of the register, the shop, photos ,info about events and even a games section. The site is clear and easy to navigate your way around.

The forum aka the soapbox has different sections, general,events, for sale and wanted and technical help. Sometimes it is easy to forget that this site is for mini owners as a lot of the threads are completely unrelated but whether you own a mini or not you are welcome and BMW mini owners are accepted too (good job as that what I have!)

Too understand the site a bit better I'd better give you a bit of info about the club itself:-

The main event that the club organises through the website is called the Legendary Grand Tour. This has now been going for ten years, every August Bank holiday Sunday and Monday we take over North Devon and drive in convoy (over 300 minis).Streets are closed for us and thousands of people line the route.You can find clips of this on youtube and it's well worth a watch, particularly the Monday where it is fancy dress for cars and drivers! The route goes through Westward Ho, Barnstaple, Lee Abbey and finishes in Ilfracombe, although the most important place we visit on route is the Childrens Hospice South West (Little Bridge House) in Fremington. This place is the core of why we do what we do, since the register started we have raised over a quarter of a million pounds for charity, we have paid for a messy play area at Little Bridge house ,another at Charlton Farm in Bristol and are now raising money for a new hospice opening soon in Wales. We drive into the grounds of the hospice on our route and the kids are brought out to see the minis come through, you never drive out of there without a tear in your eye as you realise that a lot of the kids watching you won't be here next year.

There are a lot more events happening this year as it is the 50th anniversary of the mini and we are attempting to raise 50,000 to celebrate this fact.

Anyway back to the site , the newest addition to the homepage is a link to the Cry Wolf campaign, This is not a money raising campaign but an awareness raising one. The founder of the register, Mr Terry Baker has twin daughters in their twenties, recently they were both diagnosed with breast cancer, luckily they both survived ( although they had mastectomies ) and one has recently given birth to a daughter. The point of the campaign is that one daughter went to the doctor twice concerned about the lump in her breast and was turned away as 'people your age don't get breast cancer' It took her persistance to get a scan by which time the cancer had spread. Her sister had a similar problem. The campaign is to make it so that any woman of whatever age who goes to the doctors with a suspicious lump should get a scan without having to beg for it. A Facebook page about this has also been started and a link to this and a petition can be found on the smallcarsbighearts website .

This is a great entertaining website but also has a serious side.

Summary: Small Cars Big Hearts