# First charity branded bus claim disputed

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2003/07/24/first-charity-branded-bus-claim-disputed/
- Published: 2003-07-24T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Macmillan Cancer Relief might have missed the bus themselves earlier this week in
claiming to have launched the first charity branded bus. NSPCC say they beat them
to it by three years.
It is always risky claiming to have achieved a fundraising
first on UK Fundraising, because one or more of our many thousands of readers usually
gets in touch to point out that they had already done that years before.

This has just happened with Macmillan Cancer Relief’s claim this week to have launched
the first charity branded bus. UK Fundraising thought their claim was a little unlikely
following our coverage of the Amnesty International UK ‘We Know Where You Live’ 
bus in 2001.

Now we hear from the former NSPCC Full Stop Campaign Manager for the Midlands who
says that the charity ran a branded bus for a year back in 2000. Valentine Morby
told UK Fundraising: “The campaign launched in 1999 and, following generous support
from West

## Advertisement

Midlands Travel Company and one of their advertising suppliers, we had a branded
Full Stop bus in Birmingham for one year. It was well publicised in our internal
Full Stop Press paper and in the Birmingham Evening Mail.”

This claim was then followed by those of several other charities. NDCS launched 
its [Listening Bus](http://www.ndcs.org.uk/our_services/listening_bus/index.html)
back in 1996, and Action for Blind People have had [two buses](http://www.afbp.org/Information/Mobile)
on the road “for ages”.

Last but not least [The National Playbus Association](http://www.playbus.org.uk)
have hundreds of their own buses.

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