Epic journey in tribute to brother of Jeremy Hunt
Two friends are embarking on a journey in a classic car from the Great Wall of China to Paris in memory of the brother of former Chancellor Sir Jeremy Hunt.
Surrey businessman Charlie Hunt died from spindle cell sarcoma, a rare cancer, in August 2023.
His friends Ed Talbot, from Woking, and James Hall-Smith, from Marlborough, Wiltshire, set off on Saturday to navigate through 12 countries in a restored 1972 Lancia Fulvia as part of the Hero-Era Peking to Paris Motor Challenge.
The pair, who are raising funds for charity Sarcoma UK, said it was their friend's "adventurous spirit and can-do attitude" that inspired them to take on the challenge.
The trio had known each other since they were young men.
Mr Talbot said: "Charlie's attitude in life, and while fighting this terrible disease, was only upbeat and positive.
"He embraced everything life had to offer and brought a contagious energy to all he did."
Mr Hall-Smith added: "He was a doer and went on a lot of expeditions himself such as climbing Machu Picchu in Peru.
"He would have been very excited for us taking part in this event."
The 9,319-mile (14,988km) rally crosses Asia and Europe and is expected to take six weeks.
Charlie Hunt was diagnosed with sarcoma in 2020.
He ran the London Marathon in 2022 with his elder brother, Jeremy, raising £22,000 for Sarcoma UK.
He died in 2023, aged 53.
Spindle cell sarcoma accounts for six out of every 10,000 cancer diagnoses in the UK.
Kerry Reeves-Kneip, Sarcoma UK's director of fundraising and communications, said: "This challenge embodies Charlie's adventurous spirit and positive outlook that inspired all who knew him, while raising crucial funds for Sarcoma UK to advance research into rare cancers that claim too many lives too soon."
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The process of stitching creates a deeper connection to the place and memories created during your trip and literally stitches it into your being. It's wonderful! Have you documented all your travels in embroidery? More or less, yes, haha! All apart from the one year I lived in South Africa before moving to Paris. I hadn't yet picked up embroidery but was still using other art forms to engage with and integrate in the community. The piece I made in India wasn't of a street scene but instead depicts a Kolam, a traditional powder drawing that local women in Tamil Nadu make in front of their houses every morning to welcome the good spirits. Turning one of the Kolams into an embroidery was my way of honoring their patience and concentration but in a medium close to my heart. I also stitched an Asian elephant that I transformed into a patch for my jeans jacket (and which actually got spotted at University, leading to a few embroidery patch commissions). 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When you hold the piece from afar, it looks like an intricate and detailed balcony and you only see the overlapping straight stitches when you get close up. There's a similar logic to vivid trees and bushes that are monochrome. In other words, when you can't play on varying tones of green to capture more depth and life but instead have to work on contrast and light as the basis for movement. Just like I rely on painting techniques for my thread-painting, I look to sketching foundations when I stitch; what I call 'thread-sketching.' More explicitly, this means playing on the automatic 'filling' that our eyes and mind does whenever we're faced with an image. You don't have to fill an entire leaf equally for our brain to understand that it's a covered leaf. Instead, it's about strategically placing and suggesting shapes and textures to give visual clues. When this is done well, our brains see the whole picture with depth - it's fantastic! How can someone get started on this? 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I've also had many clients come to me with requests for designs from specific places that they've traveled to and which they are stitching together into a larger quilt or visual travel journal of sorts. I LOVE that and how art allows them to keep the memories of those travels forever. What places are still on your travel and embroidery bucket list? This may sound controversial for someone into traveling but I don't necessarily have a bucket list. I prefer slow, immersive travel and have lived in nine countries over the past decade. That said, I'd love to spend more time in Italy, specifically Florence. Just like Paris, I've always been drawn to the artistic vibe of Florence and dream of us renting a studio there for some months with our daughters when the time is right. We've done so much travel and work in Europe that I'm secretly dreaming of doing some longer trips overseas again too. Perhaps to more African countries, maybe South America – Brazil would be amazing! Anything else you'd like readers to know? I want everyone reading this to know that YOU CAN DO IT TOO! A lot of embroiderers or creative people considering embroidery as a medium feel intimidated by old-school rules about techniques and how to's, when, in reality, hand embroidery is a fantastic medium for relaxation after a long day and for playing around as you wish. My mission is to empower people to implement a regular creative practice in their life as part of a holistic lifestyle that also is fun and creatively enriching. With embroidery you can create stories, bring it with you on travels (or even your commute to work or in between meetings) and personalize your clothes in a budget friendly way. The sky is the limit! For inspiration, embroidery patterns and signed copies of Embroidery Wanderlust , visit and follow along on Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube.
