Former regional press man Richard Meredith is to brave the risk of earthquake, SARS and political unrest to drive from Luton to South Korea.

He is teaming up with graduate Phil McNerney for the 16,000km trip, which will raise funds for the international charity SOS Children’s Villages.

And to raise more cash from the event, which starts on June 9, he’s willing to file ‘live’ copy along the way – to papers prepared to pay for the privilege.

Richard, (54), trained with the Herts Advertiser, now part of Archant, at St Albans under Alan Booth and then moved to the Evening Echo, one of Thomson regionals’ clutch of ring-around-London papers, in Hemel Hempstead.

After a spell at the Daily Express, he set up a regional weekly with some friends – the Northants Post in Northampton – which later became a group, was sold to Thomson’s, and is now a string of Herald and Post’s recently bought by Johnston Press.

He said: “I’ve been a journalist all my life – well the bit that’s mattered anyway.

“These days I am a mere author writing adventure travel books of the newsy and topical variety, most recently One Way or Another.

“And now this: a sponsored car drive from Luton to South Korea in a Daewoo.

“It should be quite an adventure. We are due to go through Turkey (earthquakes), China (SARS) and even North Korea (nuclear interest) and I would be happy to file a regular column.”

He came up with the idea when he was considering ways of getting to the Chinese capital of Beijing for a six-month university teaching assignment starting in September.

He said: “I drive a Daewoo, the company’s UK base in Luton is near to where I live, and the worldwide headquarters is in Seoul, just a hop from China.

“I approached GM Daewoo in Switzerland and they agreed to provide a car, which will have certain modifications, such as strengthened suspension and larger fuel tank, to make it suitable for such a challenging journey.”

Daewoo proposed SOS Children’s Villages, with whom the company has close ties, as a beneficiary from the trip.

Richard and his co-driver will drive through some 20 countries, visiting SOS Children’s Villages in Europe as well as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China and South Korea. At the end of the journey, they will be joined by executives of GM Daewoo in Korea to hand over a donation to the international organization, founded in 1949 to provide war orphans and abandoned children with a safe and loving family environment.

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