Richard Hammond joined petrolheads at a festival to raise cash for a young car fanatic with terminal cancer.
The former Top Gear host was among nearly 1,000 at Mattwood – a car show named in honour of Matt Pollard, who was diagnosed aged 19.
Guests at Goodwood, West Sussex, also included organiser and YouTuber Alex Kersten and Wheeler Dealers TV presenter Mike Brewer.
Matt said: “To arrive and see two of the most influential car people in the world, Richard Hammond and Mike Brewer, at a car show arranged for me was truly amazing.
“They were both lovely people and 10 times nicer than I could ever have imagined. It was quite overwhelming, I couldn’t believe it”.
Grand Tour star Richard, 52, told the Sunday People : “As soon as I found out about it I thought, ‘I’ve got to be there.’ We had a chat and talked about his love of cars.
“He’s a great lad with a bright sense of humour and he’s a proper inspiration. It felt tremendous to be part of it. He was full of joy for the whole day. It was genuinely moving.”
Alex and his video producer Rory McKie organised the festival in 12 days after Matt contacted him last month, asking if he could help him renovate a red Mk1 MX5. His dad Andy had bought the car after Alex inspired them by doing one up online.
Alex called in help from experts to carry out £10,000 in improvements before presenting the motor to Matt, who turned 20 last month, plus dad Andy, 54, and sister Livvi, 23.
Matt, from Thursley, Surrey, had a tattoo of the MX5 inked on his thigh at the event before driving the car on the Goodwood circuit.
Richard added: “We all formed an arch when he arrived and he was driven in and got out of the car. We gave him a wild round of applause.
“He looked around and you could see he was bowled over by the fact there was a crowd and then he started recognising friends in it and then he saw Mike Brewer standing next to me and his jaw fell.
“It was a lovely thing to be part of and everybody there felt really, really privileged to be part of it and to be able to show him some love.”
Matt – whose mum Lisa, 57, is fighting lymphoma – was diagnosed with a tumour in April and had two brain operations.
Six weeks later, he was told he had stage four brain cancer. It is inoperable but he takes chemo tablets to slow the growth.
A JustGiving account set up by Alex had last night raised more than £33,000 for Matt and his family.
Alex said: “Matt emailed me asking, ‘Can you help bring a smile to my dad’s face?’ because his dad has been the rock of the family recently. I’ll never forget the subject line of the email, which was ‘detail and brain tumour’.
“He told me about his story and how his mum has cancer, and he wanted to get the car fixed up to surprise his dad.
“He said he wanted to say, ‘Thank you for looking after me, my mum and dedicating his time and life to improving ours’’
“I’ll be honest, when I got off the phone to him I cried and I don’t remember the last time I did that.”
