Pink Tuk Tuk Visits Clare For Boot Out Breast Cancer

Bright Pink Tuk Tuk will be turning heads in Claire this weekend, all for a very important

cause. Dean Lambert is travelling the entire coast of Ireland in a bold and unconventional

way as part of a Tuk Tuk Odyssey to raise funds for a cancer charity. The journey which

spans around 2000 miles is a deeply personal one for Dean and he'll be arriving in Claire

this coming weekend and I'm delighted to say that Dean Lambert joins us now. Good morning,

Dean.

Good morning. Hi, Alan. Thanks very much for being with us. This is certainly not your

average road trip. Why are you speaking to me from a pink Tuk Tuk? How's this all come about?

Oh god, I don't know. So I started a thing called the C. Sergeant Anakin's tour, which over

about 10 series, I want to do the entire European coastline. I want to do it for a

breast charity as well. So it's a food show, breast cancer. So in September, I went

around the entire UK on a little one, two, five motorbike, 4,000, 197 miles, Tuk 27 days

and sleeping in people's gardens for that one. So that was quite obscure. But then I was

offered a Tuk Tuk for the trip around Ireland because I want to do the UK, then the course

of Ireland and then drop down into Maine on Europe and do the entire European coastline.

You know, I'll promote these centrips. Yeah, so that's how I've ended up in the Tuk Tuk.

But I only found out two days before I got it, that it was going to be pink, but it does really

suit the charity. So I don't mind looking a bit mad. Yeah, the colour definitely suits the

charity. As you say, it's for boot out breast cancer. I'm sure you were aware of what Tuk Tuk's

wear, but Dean, had you ever tried to operate one before and how have you found it so far?

Has it been easy? Has it presented any challenges? A few. So I first saw one at the Dragon Rally in

Wales last year, well, there's two of them there. So when I got home, I looked up, who was bringing

them into the country. And it's a company called Tuk Tuk UK. And when I looked at worthy

were based. There were basically eight miles from where I live. So about 12 kilometres.

So I got in touch with the guy, Rob Leggitz, and asked if I could

interview him from a YouTube channel, Monkidix Adventures. That's D-I-X, Monkidix Adventures.

And so I interviewed him for that, and he let me have a quick try in one. And then it was watching

me do the trip around the UK last September. And he offered to lend me one. So just ensure it,

and you can take one for a month. So you know, it just meant that I'd keep drier, because I'm

not out in the elements as much. So it's slightly wider tour, and it's a pull than me at the Mimaltibikes.

And it really catches the wind from time to time. And it's strange because you change gear on

the, like, an all-best bus. So basically you pull your clutch in and then twist your wrist to

change from my first through to fourth, but, you know, it's got a reverse gear as well. So it's

been strange to get used to, but I'm seven days into the 19-day trip, though, to Glen Giriff.

And yeah, it's getting more used to it. I think I'll buy it when I get home.

I'd imagine, you know, it has its pros and its cons when you're taking a trip like this,

you know, when you're heading along the coast of Ireland, and obviously biased, but beautiful

coastline. So I'm sure the slightly slower speed of a tuk-tuk compared to a conventional vehicle

allows you to take all of that in a bit more. But because you're going at a slower speed,

can that get frustrating at times and kind of present difficulties in terms of, you know,

if you're caught on roads and there's a bit of traffic behind you and there's nowhere to kind of

pull over and hunk and of horns behind you all that kind of thing? Yeah, well, everyone's been

fantastic up to no. I'll be honest, I don't think it's been great. I don't get frustrated at the

speed because I'm not at the big model right now for about seven years. I'm used to going a bit slower,

but this is on another level. What I have found, though, is every time I'm on a road, I'm constantly

looking at me rear-view mirrors, and every time I see a car, I'll be looking for the next passing

place or somewhere I can just pull right over and I just indicate to the left and let them

comply in pass and normally they're waving and really happy to see the pink and white top.

And in terms of speed, I mean, what is the top speed that a tuk-tuk can reach?

Well, this one, 66 kilometers, and it's kind of like regulated, so when you get to 66 kilometers

and hour, even if you're going downhill, it starts pushing back, it won't let you go any faster than that.

And every time you come to an hill, it like if you're going up an hill, it really slows right down.

So yeah, I've had a few times where I've been like, down into second, but I'm sure in the mountains

that I'm coming up to now, I might be down to first, I think. Yeah, I think there's no doubt about

that. I did mention what sparked all of this off, not just the trip around Ireland, but the UK,

and obviously the impending one around the continent of Europe was, you know, a personal story

involving your own wife. Now, would you mind telling us, Dean, obviously, thankfully it didn't

turn out to be as bad as maybe both of you had initially feared, but still I can imagine

until you did find out that it wasn't what you feared. There must have been a lot of worry concern.

Yeah, so she had a shadow for lump in a bladder, and they were saying basically,

it's looking very suspicious. It looked like it is cancerous, but it didn't look too deep rooted.

So for a couple of months, you know, we went through the ringer a bit, you know, because we didn't know

what was dealing with. And fortunately, it must have been about a month after they've taken it out.

She'd got the letter when it had said low malignancy, which we just believed to mean that it was like

cancerous, but it very looked like low. And especially so wrongly, and they said, oh no,

it's about at least you didn't have cancer. And, you know, we couldn't believe it, we couldn't believe

that she'd not not had it, but, yeah, but other relatives, which I'm not going to, we've had

breast cancer as well. And I was reaching out for a small charity, because I didn't want one of

these big charities word. A lot of money goes to the CEO, so I phone one called Buto Breast Cancer,

and that's run by Ian Doe's wife, the ex-footballer who used to play the Northern Ireland.

And she had it in 2010, and she started this charity to raise money to buy equipment and

breast cream equipment for hospitals. And in the last 16 years, she's raised over 2 million,

they've done an amazing job. So, and every single penny goes to the equipment. So, you know,

it seemed like a really good charity to do the last one for, when I went on the UK coastline,

and you know, raised 3,000 last time. And, you know, this is six months later, and I'm doing it

for them again, because, you know, it's such a worthwhile charity to just see, I mean,

they have like a summer ball, and it's 200 pounded ticket, and they buy their own tickets as well,

to go, you know, it's, you know, they're that committed to the charity running. So, it's lovely to see

what they're doing and the difference they're making. So, I just want to try and help towards that,

if I can. Yeah, that's a brilliant choice of charity. And, you know, you're putting in the

hard yards for them to enable them to do the incredible work they do, but for you, you know,

there are benefits to these trips as well, Dean, you know, heading around the UK, heading around Ireland,

a bit of a, you know, you do have a sense of adventure, maybe I don't know, have you

been to Ireland before or around the coast? It's an opportunity to see places you might never have

seen otherwise. Of course, yeah, I've only ever been to, I used to work with Shell when I was younger,

and I've been to Dublin a couple of times, but only, like, for the day, and then, like, back over

at the night time, and I've always wanted to come to Ireland and see the coast. So, yeah, I did

me bucket list a few years back, I retired last year at 55, and I did me bucket list, and they all

seem to involve something along the seasides, you know, so that's where I come up with this

seaside shenanigan tour. I thought, well, I might as well do the entire coast of Europe,

stand with the UK and then Ireland, and yeah, so that's what I'm doing.

Where did your journey in Ireland begin and where have you passed through up to this point?

Okay, so I started last Saturday from Manchester, rolled across in it to

to Menai Bridge of Anglesey, stayed with, with Bren there called Drific,

was my Flander, they put me up there, that was fantastic. Now, I got the ferry across from

all the Ed to Dublin, stayed at Dunleary, because it was like the tea time when I got to Ireland,

and then the next night, down to Wexford, ferry bank, camp in sight, Jimmy and the team there,

put me up for free, which was fantastic, and then from Wexford, it was Tramore,

and to Kork, where I stayed with Teddy the mechanic, and Glen, you know, fantastic people,

that's for me, on all these trips, when you open yourself up to the road, you open yourself up

to meeting like lovely people, it was the same in the UK as well, you know, people just

do so many things for you as you're traveling around, it's, it's heartwarming to see that

this kind of thing can still happen. And Dean, were a lot of these people aware of your story

beforehand, or is it just through meeting them on the road, and conversation ensues, and they

find out what you're doing, and then they offer you accommodation, or... Yeah, well, that's it's

through, because I've got a YouTube channel, as I said before, Monkidix Adventures on YouTube,

but I also have a Facebook group called The Monkid Revolution, The Small Bikes, which has started

four years ago, and we've got 4,000 people around the world, so, when I did the UK

coastline, within 24 hours, it would be pouring up an event on, I'd had 26 people saying,

you know, say it mine, you know, and I was camping in people's gardens, but when I got there,

I've already made the spare room up for you, with making your tea, it was something to eat,

it was, it was fantastic, so yeah, it's from that, and then because I didn't want to flood

the The Small Bikes community with Tuk Tuk, I've started another Facebook group for this,

for this adventure around Ireland, and it's just Tuk Tuk Tuk, around the coast of Ireland,

so if people type in Tuk Tuk Tuk, they'll see that, and on there, they can look at a track

as see where I am, and they can also, every day, every photograph I take, they were

full to dump at the end of the day, and when I get home, I'll be doing probably about 20 odd

videos of the entire track, and hopefully at some point doing a book. Yeah, well, that will

definitely be well worth doing, and if people want to donate to the cause, Dean, can they go to

website, can they go to boot at breast cancer's website? They can go to boot at breast cancer's

website, or else, as you said, I've got to just give him one, so if they went on Tuk Tuk Tuk

tour, on Facebook, there's a link on there that takes you through to a just giving page,

yeah, so I think we're on to about 600 nod homes up to now, yeah, 600 nod homes up to no

plus gift aid, as I say, I felt a bit strange doing it a second time so soon, because

you know, it's only six months since a lot of my friends and family and people are now donated,

so you know, you don't like turning the screw six months later after more money, but you know,

people have been really kind on the street and things like that, and Tuk pictures of the Tuk Tuk

which has got the just giving QR code on the side as well, so any pictures of you see of the Tuk Tuk,

you'll see QR codes, yeah. Okay, well, hopefully people will help out, and you're going to be

hitting Claire on Sunday through to Monday, presumably passing along the coastline,

so Kilkela Hinch, all those kind of places. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to keep us close to the

coast as I can, there's a couple of places that people said to me, don't go down that road,

because it's just a farm drive, but I mean, I've got to try to do as much as I can,

I've got to try to make sure that I'm back running, doubling for the 15th of April,

I keep thinking may, what's my wife and go mad if I'm another month,

but yeah, just keep on going and meeting people, but the problem is Alan, you've got so many

beautiful places over here, I keep stopping all the time, and taking pictures and looking

around and chatting with people, so yeah, that's part, lots of stories, you have to keep doing that

just for yourself and for the stories as well, and that will add to the book that you do. Dean,

we wish you the best with the rest of the trip through Claire, I'm sure you're going to get a great

reception as you will, and every other place in Ireland that you visit along the coastline,

and hopefully by the 15th of this month, you've raised a lot of money, more money for Buddha,

breast cancer, brilliant idea, brilliant initiative, and we wish you well with the rest of it, and

thanks so much for stopping for yet again, to have a chat with us. No problem, and thank you very

much to Claire and for supporting me and supporting the cars, it's really good to see so many people

helping Buddha, breast cancer, so thanks very much. No, he's Dean Lambert, thank you very

much, hopefully you get at least two dry days by the end of your journey as well. Dean Lambert

with us on morning focus. I bet she's glad the Tuk Tuk has a roof on it as opposed to the motorbike

he took around the UK, given the weather we've had for 2026 so far.