Photo: Faith Waho (13) hops in for a ride around the block with her grandfather, Darren Hampson.

Darren Hampson
The Just Truckin‘ Around Faye Lougher did on Darren Hampson was a little different from the usual side-of-the-road-during-the-work-day profile. In December Manawatu‘s Tokomaru School hosted a hot rod cruise and display fundraiser for Domanic Grant, 7, who had just been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukaemia. Darren was taking people for rides in his 1996 Western Star ‘Big Red‘ and was happy to have a chat after Faye dropped her gold coin donation in the bucket. Darren has been driving trucks for about 30-odd years, starting at a sawmill where he drove the firewood truck.

A few years ago he and his wife saw the Western Star and decided to take a gamble and buy it, and for the past year or so they have been doing contract work for the Palmerston North City Council. Based at Himatangi, Darren said he was happy to step up to help at the fundraiser, as he had been a volunteer firefighter at the Tokomaru Volunteer Fire Brigade for seven years and his granddaughter was in her last year at Tokomaru School.

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