AKIPRESS.COM - A group of four graduate engineers of the United Kingdom have just completed a 17,700-km journey from Southampton to Mongolia as part of a charity fundraiser, to deliver a 4x4 to a Mongolian hospital with the aid of GoHelp, says Gazette & Herald.

After tirelessly fundraising from dinners, auctions and marathons, the team raised the staggering amount of £20,000 (around $30.9 thousand) for the journey. After converting a Land Rover Defender to have a stretcher system fitted and cupboards for donated medical equipment, the team started their journey.

William Sexton, 22, of Lacock, said: “It was a mind-blowing experience, truly epic. We had heard of friends driving older cars over to Mongolia to donate or sell for charity and it took off from there. We are blown away by the amount of support we were given.”

The journey took two months and the team passed through Prague, Budapest, Butami and Kazakhstan.

“There were four of us in the 4x4 and about 15 to 20 other vehicles all heading to the same place. We have known each other for a while, we were all at university together so it was lucky we all got along for the duration of the journey,” added Sexton.

The car, which has been named Andy, has made a huge impact on the people working at the hospital in Mongolia. Andy will be working near Mongolia's western border with China, serving an area that is 300-km wide with a sparse population of around 15,000 people. The terrain is mountainous and has very few roads. In the winter the weather is extreme with temperature below -30°C and more than a meter of snow. The hospital currently has two old Russian vehicles which struggle off-road, do less than 10 mpg, and don't have room for a stretcher.