TWO Mini-mad couples will be realising a long-term dream when they embark on their very own Italian Job for charity.

Barry and Jackie Parsons and Jason and Tanya Field will join 100 other Mini enthusiasts to drive from Oxford to Turin without the help of maps or GPS to raise money for UK children’s charities.

Fifty-year-old Zodiac Aerospace design engineer Mr Parsons said he and his wife have a history full of stories with the classic car and have waited 14 years to take the dream trip.

The Old Marston resident said: “It’s all very nostalgic for us really. We both learnt to drive in a Mini, a white Mini 850 was our first car and I even drove Jackie home from the wedding in it.”

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The romantic gesture 27 years ago at St Nicholas Church in Marston on August 27 was Mr Parson’s decision.

Oxford Mail:

Barry taking his new wife home in their white Mini on their wedding day 27 years ago.

“It was my choice to romance her for the day and then take her home in the Mini and carry her over the threshold,” he said.

“It’s the one day you choose to remember for the right reason and it was our car.

“There was also the hidden caveat that it was old and could deal with the shaving foam and tin cans attached.”

Mr Parsons turned 50 on May 1 this year and he and his wife, a manager at Mortimer Hall Pre-School in Old Marston, will be taking on the journey as part of the birthday celebrations.

The couple, parents to Daniel, 23 and Zoe, 18, will be joined by Headington couple Jason and Tanya Field driving through the Italian streets that were various locations in the film.

The Fields own 10 Minis between their five-strong family, and will be taking their 1990 Mini Cooper onto the continent.

Now their three children, 19-year-old Kieran and twins Jamie and Daniel, 18, have moved out Mr and Mrs Field can finally take on the challenge.

Mr Field, who works as a telecommunications manager at the BMW Mini plant in Cowley, has been waiting to take on the Italian Job challenge since its inception 25 years ago.

He said: “I would have loved to have done it back then but I was still paying for my first car – a Mini of course.

“Then when we did have the funds we didn’t have the time with the kids and everything.”

The family have a Mini from every decade since the 1960s.

Mr Field admitted he may not have met his wife of 21 years, a mental health worker, if it was not for the classic car.

The 42-year-old said “I met Tanya through Minis, and the car has a strong bond in our family.

“Had we not both had Minis as our first car we probably wouldn’t have met, we used to go out in a big group in Oxford, and that was our common theme – we started meeting up.

“Mini has a lot to answer for.”

The couples begin their 2,000 mile journey tomorrow.

They are fundraising for Variety, a charity for disabled and disadvantaged children.

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