We are driving thousands of miles so more families can receive the care they need
The Asha Drive began with a simple belief: Every child deserves to be cared for with dignity, comfort and compassion. And every family caring for a child with a life-limiting condition deserves support.
In 2027, Emma Deterding and Priscilla “Cills” Giles will drive a small tuk-tuk from Kerala to Kashmir and then from Felixstowe to Fife.
Their goal is to raise awareness and £500,000 for children’s palliative care in India and the United Kingdom.
Families caring for children with serious illnesses often face challenges that most of us can barely imagine. They may need to manage complicated medical care, sleepless nights, financial pressures and constant uncertainty.
Children’s palliative care surrounds these families with specialist support. It helps control pain and symptoms. It provides respite and practical advice. It gives parents someone to call when they do not know what to do next. And it helps children experience as much comfort, happiness and normality as possible.
Emma has supported children’s hospice care for more than 35 years. She has seen the extraordinary difference this support can make. She has also seen how many families still struggle to access it.
The Asha Drive exists to help change that.
Why we are doing this
Why a tuk-tuk?
We needed a way to make people stop, look and ask questions. A tuk-tuk seemed like a good place to start. Asha is small enough to feel vulnerable, unusual enough to attract attention and determined enough to keep moving.
Her name means hope. As she travels across India and Britain, she will help us begin conversations about children’s palliative care in towns, cities, hospices, schools and communities.
Every stop will give us another opportunity to share the work being done and invite more people to support it.
Join the movement
Our plan
Drive across India
Emma and Cills will travel from Kerala to Kashmir, visiting charitable organisations and meeting people working to improve the lives of children and families.
Drive across the United Kingdom
After returning Asha to Britain, the team will travel from Felixstowe to Fife and visit children’s hospices along the route.
Raise £500,000
The money raised will support children’s palliative care and charitable work in India and the UK.
Share the stories
The journey will be filmed and documented, giving families, care teams, doctors, supporters and local communities a platform to tell their stories.
Meet the Team
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Emma Deterding
FOUNDER AND DRIVER
Emma is an entrepreneur, fundraiser and lifelong supporter of children’s hospice care.
Her involvement began after she watched a television programme about children’s hospices as a young mother. It developed into a commitment spanning more than 35 years, including service as a trustee and Patron of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices.
Emma divides her time between Norfolk and London, where she runs several businesses including Kelling Designs, Kelling Home, Kelling Staging and Serucchi London.
She loves India, big ideas and ambitious projects. She knows considerably less about tuk-tuk mechanics. That has not stopped her.
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Priscilla “Cills” Giles
CO-DRIVER, MECHANIC & FILMMAKER
Emma had the idea. Cills is the person helping make sure they survive it.
A former radio programme director and experienced filmmaker, Cills will document the journey and share the stories of the people they meet.
She is also a lifelong lover of classic and vintage cars and is far more comfortable around engines than Emma.
On the road, she will be the co-driver, mechanic, photographer, filmmaker, fixer and calm voice when something inevitably goes wrong.
Emma suggested the journey. It sounded difficult. It sounded slightly ridiculous.
So Cills said yes.
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Margaret “Maggie” Heath
FUNDRAISER & CHIEF CHEERLEADER
Maggie has helped raise more than £10 million for charitable causes through concerts, dinners, galas, golf events and major fundraising campaigns.
For The Asha Drive, she provides fundraising experience, encouragement and support during the team’s practice runs and preparations.
She has also spent enough time in a vehicle with Emma to describe the experience as a “white-knuckle tour.”
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Andra Fitzherbert
HEAD OF LOGISTICS & OPERATIONS
A journey of this scale requires more than enthusiasm and a tuk-tuk.
It requires a plan.
Andra is responsible for turning the idea into a properly coordinated campaign.
She oversees routes, meetings, hospice visits, media opportunities, sponsor activity and the countless practical details that keep the project moving.
Emma may have started The Asha Drive.
Andra makes sure everyone knows what is happening next.
Officially, she is Head of Logistics and Operations.
Unofficially, she is the boss.
The organisations we are supporting
In the United Kingdom, The Asha Drive will support children’s hospice care through Together for Short Lives, which champions children’s palliative care services and the families who rely on them.
In India, the campaign plans to support FCRA-registered organisations working across palliative care, childhood cancer support, education, health and child welfare.
These organisations include:
Pallium India
CanKids KidsCan
Khushii
Salaam Baalak Trust
Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project
Final beneficiary arrangements will be confirmed before the fundraising campaign begins.
You can help make the journey matter
The distance Emma and Cills travel will attract attention.
But what we do with that attention is what matters.
Your donation can help more children receive specialist care.
Your support can help families feel less alone.
And your voice can help make children’s palliative care impossible to overlook.