HAPTON businessman and rally driver Justin Birchall was a special guest of the Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast last week.
He was invited to Stormont by Ulster Unionist MLA Robin Swann, who represents Ballymena, the hometown of Mr Birchall’s Dakar Rally co-driver, Cpl Phillip Gillespie.
The Race2Recovery team spoke about their experiences as the first disabled team to complete the gruelling rally in South America in January.
Mr Birchall, who lives in Middop, near Gisburn, has pledged to raise £25,000 for Tedworth House, a recovery centre for war veterans. He was hospitalised when his car was involved in an off-road accident which killed two people, in Peru during the rally.
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