On August 16 my family should have been looking forward to welcoming
hundreds of people to our yard in Brannockstown, Co. Kildare as we have for the past 17 years. Unfortunately due to public health guidelines surrounding COVID-19 and for the safety of those that would attend, we have made the difficult decision that the Mac and Norman Vintage Tractor Rally won’t be able to go ahead in its traditional format this year.

All charities have been hit hard by the impact of COVID-19 and this is no different for the Irish Cancer Society who have had to cancel Daffodil Day and other significant events and are facing up to a 30% shortfall in fundraising income. This, at a time when they have witnessed a 60% increase in demand for their Nurseline support service and a 20% increase in requests for Night Nurses. Now, more than
even, cancer patients and their families need our support. With that in mind, we will be hosting the first ever Mac and Norman Virtual Tractor Rally.

What we are asking is for people to conduct and film their own rally, in their own area. This is not just for tractors, trucks and motorbikes. We want everyone to get involved. Anything that moves can take part in the virtual rally. We would love to see children get involved by getting on their favourite toy tractor, bike or scooter and parading around their own homes. Whether multiple vehicles or single, we want to see people out on their machines in support of the Irish Cancer Society.

To take part, all anyone needs to do is to take a video of their at home rally in landscape and email it to Colm Lambe colm_lambe@hotmail.com before August the 10. These will be compiled into a video and shown on our Facebook page on August 16. We will be promoting our event far and wide this year as we

hope to get entries across Ireland and abroad so please share this within your network and help us to achieve something significant in support of cancer patients.