The Mongol Rally is, for us, a fantastic opportunity to visit parts of the world that we would never otherwise see. We will be immersed in cultures far removed from our own, passing through societies and communities that will be vastly different from South West London.

One of the basic human necessities, clean water, which we take for granted in the UK is in desperately short supply in some of the poorest regions of the globe. With it in constant, easy supply from our taps it's almost impossible for us to understand the hardships some people go through to get access to any kind of water at all.

For that reason, we have chosen WaterAid as our team charity, and everything beyond the £500 set sum that will go to our second charity, Cool Earth, is earmarked for them. They work with people who haven't got the infrastructure or funding to either have or create access to water, and they do it in all regions of the globe.

The house charity of the Mongol Rally and our second charity is Cool Earth. Their mission statement is to protect the world's rainforests because they are worth far more to us still standing, cooling the Earth and providing habitats and homes for countless species and peoples, than as firewood, farmland or hardwood flooring.

Without them we stand to have to deal with a huge loss in biodiversity, a probably irreversible increase in atmospheric CO2 and incalculable damage to the livelihoods of the 1.6 billion people that depend on them. We believe the fact that rainforests are so key to the continued survival of humans on Earth makes them without doubt worth protecting. 

We ask that you donate anything you can to these worthy causes.