A 1988 Ford Transit van – known as a Spy Van – has been auctioned to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society.
Director of commercial sales at Manheim James Davis chose to sell the van in aid of the charity and instantly caught the public’s imagination with a Facebook campaign.
Less than 72 hours after posting the videos on Facebook, they had been viewed more than 500,000 times and attracted in excess of 5,000 shares and comments.
At Manheim’s Shepshed van auction centre on Monday 22 May, Matthew Davock, head of LCV at Manheim, opened the bidding at £5,000. The gavel went down at £10,300, following the winning bid from a loyal Manheim buyer, Mark Scott of Premier Van Sales.
Mark is a true enthusiast who has a personal collection of special vans and said: “I really liked the approach to the restoration and I followed it on Facebook from the start.
“The posts from James about the deadly Alzheimer’s disease and his father touched me deeply, and I set my heart on buying the Spy Van to support the fundraising effort, which I’m very happy I did, as I’m over the moon to be its new owner.”
James Davis added: “The Spy Van project has been an amazing journey. I decided to auction the van off in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society, with the entire sale price being donated to the charity. Along with other donations, the total we’ve raised stands at nearly £13,000. A huge thanks to everyone involved over the last couple of years, and of course to Mark as the winning bidder.”
Those who would like to support the fundraising effort can do so by searching for ‘Spy Van’ on www.justgiving.com.
