Positivity: Friends Restore Lotus in Secret
Thursday, 12 July 2007, 05:47 GMT 06:47 UK
A sports car enthusiast who suffered a mini stroke while restoring a Lotus Esprit was amazed when online friends finished the work for him in secret.
Simon Pritchard, 36, from Abergavenny, had been in the process of rebuilding the 25-year-old car when he fell ill.When members of the Lotus Esprit online forum website heard, they donated money and time to fix it.
The original 18-month project costing £25,000 actually took his friends just five weeks to complete.
Mr Pritchard had several mini strokes after developing Reiter’s Syndrome - a form of arthritis which develops as a reaction to infections in the body.
He also suffers from a lung complaint.
But despite his illness, he was determined to lead as full a life as possible and wanted to restore the classic.
As part of his research, he logged onto a website which allowed people to get help and advice in the restoration of such cars.
Andy Betts, from Bexley, Greater London, who runs the website said: “He was trying to do up the car even though he was quite unwell.
“One day I phoned him up and his wife said he was in hospital and I thought that there had to be something we could do to help him.”
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