A patron of the Amy Gillett Foundation and a wide variety of other charities in the past - Mark still felt he wanted to do something more, something personal, for charity. The inaugural 2003 Cadbury Schweppes Mark Webber Challenge was held in Tasmania to fulfil his desire to challenge himself while giving back to the Australian community, and after a two year break, the Challenge was launched again in 2006 with a vengeance, this time as the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge.

To umbrella the Challenge and all his future charitable fund-raising and events, Mark created the Mark Webber Challenge Foundation. Each year, the Foundation supports two nominated Challenge charities - and in 2008 this included the Leukaemia Foundation and the Save the Tassie Devil Appeal.

Although the biggest news of the 2008 Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge was Mark breaking his leg while cycling on Day 4, in Mark's own words he was 'particularly proud of the 2008 event, as it's the best Challenge we've put together so far.'

Once again the event attracted a wide array of competitors; including two porters from Papua New Guinea, Beijing Olympic gold medal winning rowing pair (double sculls for Australia) David Crawshay and Scott Brennan, Paralympic gold medallist and Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Michael Milton, a host of corporate companies - including Telstra and RBS returning for the third time - and for the first time, Mark's F1 team sponsor Red Bull, whose adventure racing elite duo eventually took out the overall honours.

The event kicked off on November 19 at the picturesque and remote location of Cradle Mountain and finished in the heart of the island state's commercial district in Hobart, taking in almost 250 kilometres of some of the world's most inhospitable yet stunning terrain in the process.

For the first time in the event's history, it was split into three categories; the new 'Ambassadors Cup' division for invitational pairs was introduced alongside the corporate (Van Diemen Cup) division and elite pairs (2theXtreme Cup) division.

Visit www.markwebberchallenge.com for full results, photos, online donations and news reports.

Mark has recently joined the Amy Gillett Foundation as one of its Patrons. Established in memory of Amy Gillett, the Australian cyclist who was tragically killed by a motorist while out training with 5 team mates in Germany in July 2005, the Foundation aims to:

• promote a safe and harmonious relationship between cyclists and motorists
• provide an annual scholarship for emerging female cyclists
• assist the five women injured in the crash in Germany

www.amygillett.org.au