Husband and wife duo, Andrew Gibson and Terrill Riley-Gibson, along with 76-year-old Harold Riley and Dutch architectural technician Anna Hoogeboom stayed the night in Moree on Sunday as part of their Long Ride 4 Life trip.

The four started in Longreach, Queensland and have their eyes set for Ulverstone in Tasmania, which means they will cover 3000km in 100 days.

Mrs Riley-Gibson said along the way they’ve met many people who’ve shared their personal stories of how the RFDS has helped them.

“We’ve all got a story to tell, and we love hearing about peoples’ stories and passion towards the organisations we are raising money for, but we also want people who haven’t had their own personal experience to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and help out,” she said.

During their trip to Moree, the four stopped in Garah where $350 was raised and stories were shared.

“We met a man in Garah, who I will call X, who melted our hearts with his very sad story. X, a hardy, weather-beaten shearer had donated his stem cells to his brother last year or so, to hopefully give him a new life.

“After being discharged from hospital the transplant was rejected and his brother sadly died. This stoic man gratefully accepted my hug, later gave us $50 and gave me an unsolicited goodbye kiss,” Mrs Riley-Gibson said.

The four are trying to raise $250,000 via online donations, and some random donations from kind people they meet along the way.

Mrs Riley-Gibson and her husband are passionate about the Long Ride 4 Life as they’ve both had “brushes with death”.

“Our lives were turned upside down six years ago when Andrew was diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia. A few years later as Andrew was recovering from a life-saving stem cell transplant from his brother Peter, I suffered a stress-induced heart attack,” she said.

Mr Riley contributed to the RFDS’ inclusion, as he had been rescued a number of times whilst living in the outback, falling off horses and the likes.

“From Longreach to Ulverstone, we’ll camp out under the stars with our self-funded motorhome that will support the ride, our four horses (Wallaby, Lucky, Pedro and Jasper) and the four dogs (Rock, Minnie, Lucy and Terrill’s dog Snap).

“Snap will turn 16 on the ride, which is proof that you can’t keep a good dog down,” Mrs Riley-Gibson said.

The group stressed that everything they used and bought along the way was self-funded so 100 per cent of what they make goes to the charities. 

You can follow the quirky team on Facebook by searching Long Ride 4 Life where they post videos, photos and stories daily.

If you would like to make a donation visit the website at longride4life.com.