Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page. Myself (Paul Toon), Alan Watt and Murray Watt appreciate any donation you may wish to give in memory of a great man, Doddie Weir, and to his foundation which aims to try and find a cure for MND.

Doddie was a Scottish rugby union player who made 61 international appearances for the Scotland national team and also represented the British & Irish Lions. He was born on July 4th, 1970 and sadly passed away on 26th November 2022 after suffering from motor neurone disease (MND).

Alan Watt, played Scottish rugby with Doddie in the early 1990's and has many fond memories and stories to tell, some of which are legendary and worthy of a long journey to delve into the detail. Myself (Paul Toon) is Alan's good friend and drinking buddy along with Murray Watt, both friends, drinking buddies and avid rugby fans. In brief, we hatched a plan in the pub which, as all good plans go, sounded sensible at the time. As Doddie and Alan were old-school rugby union players, whose careers straddled the amateur and professional eras, why not drive to Rome in an 'old school' British car. Myself and Alan both like old Jaguars, Murray on the other hand, didn't get the memo and suggested a Volvo. In his defence, he is short and likes a big car (in fact any car is big to Murray) he also wears a flat cap and probably puts slippers on to put the bin out. The only sensible argument Murray could put forward in his suggestion is that now we have bought the car, Alan doesn't fit in it - he is simply too big !! He cant bend enough to get in the back and we will have to take the seat out of the front and 'fashion' a bucket seat, with in built toilet facilities, to undertake the journey. Kevin Mckenzie, a former Scottish player and friend of both Doddie and Alan joked, at least we are not doing it in a Fiat 500.

Notwithstanding the above, we reached out to Marco at 'Rust2Rome' and he immediately offered us a place as 'Team Doddie' in the 2024 Rust to Rome event, not only that, we were honoured to have been assigned the team No.5 to help us raise funds with Doddie's famous no 5 on our car.

Our old jag will carry the moniker 'Mistaken Identity' which those of you who know, know.

Doddie founded the 'My Name’5 Doddie Foundation', a charity committed to funding research to find effective treatments for motor neuron disease (MND) which we hope, in our endeavour as three friends going on a journey sharing stories, will raise money for this good cause. We thank you for any donations, however 'Alans size' or 'Murray's size' and thank you for taking time to drop by.

More photos will follow but for now - lets make a start.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.