30 Sept 2024
Cliff jump into the Atlantic and race in kayaks some of the challenges as teams from UK and US compete in Mission Rabies Rally in Cornwall.
John Bonner
Job Title
The winning DNA Vetcare team (from left) are Radu Tomescu, Steph Taylor and Aida Ziadichetabi.
Jumping off a cliff into the ice cold Atlantic Ocean was just one of the many challenges facing those taking part in this year’s Mission Rabies Rally in Cornwall.
The event was held from 11 to 12 September with teams from practices and veterinary organisations racing around the narrow lanes of the south-west peninsula in motorised rickshaws known as tuk-tuks.
And this year, it was vet nurse Steph Taylor and her colleagues from DNA Vetcare in London and Kent who took the honours after two days of fun.
Participants had to track down a series of checkpoints and capture a QR code on their mobile phones. They then received clues to help them find the next checkpoint.
The overall aim was to raise money to support the work of the Worldwide Veterinary Service and its subsidiary, Mission Rabies – organisations responsible for planning and implementing mass vaccination programmes for street dogs, the source of infection for most of the estimated 97,000 human rabies cases recorded each year.
As well as Miss Taylor’s winning group, there were teams from small animal practices across the UK and as far afield as Salt Lake City in the US. Other teams represented organisations involved in fighting rabies, such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the UK Dogs Trust, and vaccine manufacturers MSD and Ceva.
The teams travelled around 60 miles on the first day, from the Mission Rabies office on the Roseland peninsula, and over the Fal estuary to the Lizard. They began the second day paddling in kayaks and had to track down a waterborne rally guide, who directed them to leap off the cliff.
Miss Taylor said: “That was a little scary – there was a 15-metre drop, but we did have a safety helmet and a life jacket, so we were pretty relaxed about it.
“The whole event was a tremendous adventure – really exhilarating, but a lot more intense than I was expecting.”
Her team – named the Foaming Freestylers – consisted of Miss Taylor, Aida Ziadichetabi from Iran and Radu Tomescu from Romania. The internationally qualified, but inexperienced, team was up against high-quality local opposition – a trio from the St Clement Veterinary Clinic in Truro, which won last year’s rally.
Miss Taylor added: “We soon worked out that Radu was the best driver among us and Aida was the best navigator. I was able to nip out of the vehicle, run to the checkpoint and read off the instructions.”
Although the winning team did get lost a couple of times when the lack of phone signal affected its navigation aids, it found that local people knew about the rally, were enjoying the spectacle and were happy to help.
As well as being a fun experience for participants and helping support the work of Mission Rabies, the rally has a serious purpose in bringing together members of the alliance seeking to eradicate dog-mediated human rabies by 2030.
The International Rabies Taskforce is run by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mission Rabies and MSD. It currently has 21 dog vaccination projects in 13 countries. The work is supported by other stakeholders, including The University of Edinburgh Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Vetoquinol and Idexx, which are also sponsors of the rally.
Mission Rabies founder Luke Gamble said: “Next year we hope to be able to organise two of these rallies with more participants, as we are planning to buy some more tuk-tuks, which cost about £5,500 each. To make sure we make the most of them during the rest of the year, we will probably use them for corporate events. That will raise awareness of our work and we hope, some more funding.”
