ONE driver from the Brockweir Soapbox Derby was racing for a special cause when steering her soapbox down the track.

Liz Hart raised £212.72 for Home-Start Monmouthshire with the aptly themed entry ‘don’t wake the baby’.

The idea to support Home-Start with her entry was just part of the reason to take part in the event.

She said: “I decided to take part in the race partly because it looked really fun and partly because there were no women racers last year. I thought it was a bit of a shame for the children and the young people. So it was good to show that women could take part.

“I’m also quite new to the area, so I thought it would be a good way to get to know some more people and neighbours.

“Then I started decorating the kart and there was quite a lot of interest from family and friends so I thought it would be quite a good idea to do it sponsored. Because the kart was called ‘Don’t wake the baby’ and had a sleeping baby on it and lots of paraphernalia about raising small children it seemed fitting that I should raise  money for Home-Start because the support young families.”

Despite some technical difficulties, Ms Hart still considered it a great success, especially given the money raised.

“It was a really fun day, and I’d asked two of my neighbours to be in my pit team and as well as borrowing the kart from another neighbour I had another two supporting me on the day. It was a really good fun, neighbourly thing to do really.”

Home-Start was more than happy to share in the success, with manager Pam Lloyd describing how important each donation is.

She said: “It will go towards the running of the scheme, we need the money to keep the scheme going because every little bit helps.

“It’s so lovely when people approach us out of the blue and they have a connection with what we are doing we get lots of donations like that and it helps.”