Weir was diagnosed with MND in 2016 and set up the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation to fund research into the rare debilitating condition before his death in 2022 aged 52. Alan Watt, 56, played rugby with Weir in the 1991 Rugby World Cup and decided to take part in this year’s Rust 2 Rome rally challenge with friends Paul Toon and Murray Watt to raise £25,000 for the foundation. The challenge involves teams chipping in to buy a car worth no more than £1,000 then driving from Edinburgh to Rome over 12 days, stopping overnight at locations which are only revealed to the teams each morning before they set off.
Mr Toon, 57, a senior consultant engineer from Bridge of Allan, travelled to London to acquire the vehicle he and his friends will drive during the challenge – an old Jaguar the team have emblazoned with the number five in a reference to Weir’s old playing number and the Doddie Foundation. He said: “The route is challenging – it’s not just a straight line to Rome – but we’ve every confidence it will make the journey. “This year there are 34 vehicles taking part.
We do a showcase in Monaco then we work our way down to Rome where we’re allowed to park at the Colosseum. “The beauty of it is, we don’t really know where we’re going along the way – we only get the destination on the morning of the day of travel. It adds a bit of mystery to the adventure.
“There’ll be breakdowns and incidents, but hopefully no accidents, and we’ll all get to share.
