Ferndale brothers ready to set course for Sydney via Uluru in a ‘S***box’ of a car

IT is not often that you find two people willingly offer to drive from one side of the country to the other in a decrepit car.

That is what Ferndale brothers Jarrod and Owen Povah, from Team Point Break-Down, have volunteered for when they tackle the S***box Rally in May.

The pair will travel from Perth to Sydney via Uluru in a car worth less than $1000; in this case, a 2003 Ford Fairmont sedan with more than 300,000km on its clock.

The brothers are doing it to raise money for The Cancer Council.

Jarrod was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal (bowel) cancer in 2017 and their uncle died from terminal cancer last year.

While Jarrod is in remission, he was still undergoing treatment when they submitted their application for the rally.

“It was a little bit of a gamble for us, but we thought it was too good of an opportunity to not have a crack at it and fortunately my treatment has all panned out the best we could hope,” Jarrod said.

“It will be a closing of the book in some ways for me to tell my story. I wasn’t too public with it, it was only my close friends and family who knew it was going on.

“It’s a good opportunity to tell my side of the story and what I’ve been through and raise some money for The Cancer Council.”

During Jarrod’s treatment, he witnessed The Cancer Council’s support for those battling cancer.

“I was fortunate in that I never had to utilise a lot of it just because I had family support and friend support,” he said. “Fortunately through work I was able to take a lot of sick leave, but you definitely see what they’re doing.

“When I’d sit there at radiation appointments, they would have staff that would walk around and offer information, or just the opportunity to talk; they were there and very visible.

“It was reassuring to know they had services available, whether that was physical support services or transport or counselling or some of their financial stuff.”

The pair are relishing the trip, but admitted they were slightly apprehensive about their choice of transport.

“The more I think about it, the worse it becomes and a lot more people want to come up and talk about the rally, which is great, but then they start talking about the car,” Owen said.

“It had been going alright, but the one little thing is the aircon isn’t working at the moment.”

Visit https://2019.sh|itboxrally.com.au/team-point-break-down to donate to their campaign.