FOUR Ilkley friends are looking for help from local businesses in their quest to drive 10,000 miles around the globe to deliver a much-needed ambulance to Mongolia.

Megan Hampton, Oliver Hayes, and brothers Matt Wild and Will Wild, all 23, will be representing Yorkshire in the 2016 Mongolia Charity Rally.

The Rally is an epic 10,000 mile pan-continental road trip for charity, across numerous mountain ranges, deserts and more barren and inhospitable lands.

For One Steppe Beyond ,the Mongolia Charity Rally involves purchasing a vehicle which can be used as an ambulance in the UK and then, on July 8, driving from Ilkley to Mongolia to deliver the ambulance to a hospital in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.

The aim is to help alleviate the current 20 per cent shortfall of emergency vehicles in Mongolia.

The former Ilkley Grammar students are inviting Yorkshire businesses to make a donation.

The vehicle they plan to buy must be: suitable for off road driving; suitable for use as an emergency service vehicle, not necessarily a full size ambulance but could be used as a medical distribution vehicle for a hospital clinic on Mongolia; and for Mongolian import reasons, the vehicle must be less than 9 years old.

Oliver, Matt and Will all work as engineers in Yorkshire, while Megan is currently studying at Edinburgh University.

Matt said: "We were all students, and when we started working, we wanted to do something to help someone. We've always had a bit of a taste for adventure."

They hope to raise thousands of pounds to buy a vehicle - or inspire someone to donate a vehicle suitable for use.

The team says access to primary health care n rural areas of Mongolia is severely limited by both the scale of the country - Mongolia is 6.5 times larger than the UK - and poor existing road infrastructure.

Providing an off-road ambulance to Mongolia will enable local hospitals to engage communities further afield whilst helping to meet the current shortfall of ambulances.

The team also aims to address the issue of worldwide healthcare inequality through educating and raising awareness in the UK via social media. Through the act of physically driving from Yorkshire to Mongolia, they hope to communicate an idea of global connectivity across international borders."

The Mongolia Charity Rally forms part of registered charity Go Help’s Ambulance Project. Since Go Help was founded, 26 ambulances have been donated, which were then in turn either donated to hospitals, clinics and non-governmental organisations, or retained for use in charity projects.

Visit gofundme.com/onesteppebeyond or facebook.com/onesteppe to get involved.