In 50 words or less…
Well respected farmers and horse trainers of Cargo - Alexander and Lee Van Den Bos, have had more than their fair share of a rough trot lately. Living through the drought and having to destock to less than a third of what they would normally have is just part of it. Throwing more heartache into the mix, Lee battled a brain tumour and after having it taken out was given the devastating news nobody ever wants to hear, a timeframe.
Rewind to a few months back, a Triple M ad came over the radio giving listeners a chance to go into the draw to win a brand new 2019 Mitsubishi GLS Triton Dual Cab.
Lee heard the ad and as it was, their vehicle had been playing up and had been taken on a few too many trips to the mechanics. Part of the competition was to send in an entry, ‘in 50 words or less why do you deserve this’. Husband, Alex said, “She wrote from her heart, she said how we had been doing it tough with the drought for four years and how our car had been playing up.”
Incredibly and deservingly so, the Van Den Bos family were chosen as the winners. “We got drawn out of everyone in Australia- we’ve never even been drawn in a chook raffle or a meat tray let alone something like this! Alex Gushed, “It meant a lot to Lee and myself as we both don’t work anymore. With everything that has gone wrong with the drought, and Lee and the ute playing up- it’s been a nightmare. But, this, this was absolutely great, we’ve got a brand new ute now with seven years warranty, 150,000 ks, and if Lee has to go to Sydney for surgery I don’t have to worry about if the car breaks down or where am I going to find the money to get a car.”
The phone call came from Queensland’s Triple M station. “She said if I win are you available to go and do all of the things (because apparently there are people that aren’t) she said make sure you have your phone on you in the morning, I thought oh yeah.. I never do. Anyway, the next morning came and we got the phone call, I thought I was getting gee’d up when he said Congratulations you’ve won! I said well hang on a minute I better sit down!”
Lee laughed, “He thought it was a joke, even today coming in we said we couldn’t believe that we have won it.”
In the prize were tickets to the ‘Red Hot Summer Tour’ at the Hunter Valley and two nights’ accommodation. Whilst there, Alex and Lee met Jimmy Barnes who actually handed over their (fake) key to the vehicle. Alex added “Jimmy was a really nice bloke, he didn’t just hand over the keys shake our hand and walk away, he stayed and talked to us, he took the time to read our story and he said, ‘It was nice that people who won it genuinely deserve it’, I thought he was a very humble man.”
Travelling over NSW with their horses in tow, you can imagine the necessity of a worthy vehicle. Alex continued, “It gives us both peace of mind knowing we now have a reliable vehicle, there’s nothing worse than being stuck somewhere with a horse float on with car troubles!”
“It means so much to me,” I did this for him, said Lee, “This gives Alex something to keep going on with because breeding and training the horses, we do it together, that’s what we do - our horses, and we do it as a family, that’s all we’ve known for 50 years. That’s what I live for, getting up early with Alex, going to the racetrack and watching the horses work, that’s my distraction. It cheered me up to know if and when something happened to me, I know he would still be able to continue with the horses.”
“There’s a lot of people out there worse off than us so we are very appreciative of Mitsubishi and Triple M (the lady we were in contact with bent over backwards to make things happen for us). Just look at it.. it’s a beauty.”
