“Female Captain Tom” aged 87 raises nearly £3m for charity with annual Italy to UK Mini race called the Italian Job after the Michael Caine film

An octogenarian fundraiser dubbed a “female Captain Tom” is revving up for her nineties by raising nearly £3m for children’s charities through an annual Mini race from Italy to the UK called the Italian Job after the Michael Caine movie.

Presented with an MBE in 2021 for helping children in poverty across the world, when travel agent Giulia St George, 87, and her son Freddie St George, 52, started the rally in 1990, which sees Minis race more than 3,000 miles across Europe, she thought it was a one-off.

Still enjoying its success more than three decades later, Giulia, who originally hails from Rome, Italy, but lives in Brighton, East Sussex, near managing director Freddie and her psychologist daughter Paola St George, 53, said: “I want to keep doing this forever.”

She added: “I’m thankful to the Italian Job as it changed my life.

“This event has given me life and given me the opportunity to meet incredibly generous people.

“So, why should my age matter?”

She added: “Look at Captain Tom and what he achieved. Some people compare me to him, but for me it’s all about the participants.

“My philosophy is always that if you have more to give, you have to. And I feel great. I couldn’t sit down and do nothing.

“But I don’t feel like I’ve done anything extraordinary. The charity motivates me but it’s not me who raised the money.”

Happily single since separating from her late husband travel agent Joseph St George in the 1980s, Giulia devotes each day to organising future events to raise money for charity.

And she has no regrets about being single, having met Brit Joseph in Rome in 1966, before moving to England with him.

She said: “I took some time to fall in love with him.”

She added: “Then we separated, but I love being independent.”

Apart from an hour devoted to watching ITV drama Heartbeat each day, Giulia is laser-focused on her fundraising endeavours and even works out three days a week to keep her mind and body in shape.

She said: “I have a personal trainer and train three days a week.”

She added: “I think I have lived better in this part of my life, as I’ve been more satisfied with how I am living. I don’t know how I can age without doing something constructive.

“Life needs to be lived in a fun way and doing good things helps you to live well

“Even in my eighties, I feel great, as I live better.”

The idea for the Italian Job, named after the hit 1969 crime blockbuster of the same name starring Sir Michael Caine, came to Giulia’s son Freddie after a couple of glasses of wine at a pizzeria in Brighton when he was just 20.

Giulia, who has worked in tourism her entire adult life, says Freddie looked to her for advice on how to organise an event which would allow him to see Italy in a quirky and fun way.

The first rally took place on November 8, 1990 with 56 teams – which included the oldest Mini, a 1960 Mini van that travelled from Trento, Italy, to Brighton over 48 hours.

The race raised £58,000 for Children in Need and Childline and Giulia says the event was a rousing success.

She said: “In some ways I was transported into creating the Italian Job out of love for my son.

“At the time it was completely nuts, it was something totally unheard of in 1990. It was a real adventure, there weren’t the same ways to travel as there are now.”

She added: “The beauty of what we did is that we built incredible friendships in the name of a good cause – helping children.”

Giulia says she thought it would be a one-off event, but when they arrived in Brighton they were all so overwhelmed by emotion that they decided they would try it again the following year.

She added: “I felt so emotional that we did something lovely, something good.”

She added: “When you do things for others, you improve yourself.

“We were all so exhausted, the Minis travelled through the night.

“We actually all cried at the end, it was so emotional. Someone tried to say something at the end to thank us and we all just broke down.”

Since the first event in 1990, Giulia and her band of Mini enthusiasts, who call her the Job Mother and themselves the Jobbers, have travelled to more than 200 towns and cities across Europe.

In Italy alone they have visited more than 50 – including Florence, Rome, Turin and Bologna.

Looking back at the success of the event, Giulia said: “Back then I would never have imagined we’d be where we are today.”

She added: “We didn’t even think it would be an event we put on again, but then we had our second, and our third and it never stopped.

“My relationship with my son has grown so much in these last 30 years. This is an incredible passion we have shared.

“It requires much love and affection and we have made memories for life.”

She added: “And it made me appreciate even more of Italy. I’ve seen places I would have never seen without this rally.”

One of her high points was meeting Michael Caine in 1997, when she was invited to the Queen’s birthday celebration at Kensington Gardens in central London.

She was also taken aback by how “affable” Her Majesty was.

She said: “The Queen was fantastic. We spoke for three minutes and she was fixated on what I had to say. She was completely focused.

“She asked me about the Minis and gave me all her attention. It was incredible.

“And she was very affable.”

Last year, Giulia was awarded an MBE for her fundraising efforts – although, at first, she told Freddie she thought it might be a joke.

Freddie, who has worked alongside her for the past 32 years, says he was filled with immense pride when he found out.

Living in Brighton with his wife Kiri, 50, a full-time mum to their two children Isabella, 18, and Emmy, 17, he said: “Mum is fiercely independent and doesn’t need anyone. She has been a single woman for as long as I can remember.”

He added: “When I found out she was nominated for an MBE I was filled with so much pride. She’s amazing.

“I don’t know if she realises how significant it is.

“She phoned me and asked me if it was a joke, and I looked at it and I was over the moon. It was absolutely deserved.”

Freddie said he is inspired by his mum’s incredible spirit every day, and hopes to one day share the same experience with his two daughters.

He added: “We started 32 years ago. She was in her late 50s when we started. But it’s the thing that makes her wake up in the morning.

“She always works, she only stops for an hour a day to watch Heartbeat. Then she’s back at her desk until 6pm.”

He added: “She does boxercise, she does weights. She’s an indefatigable woman – she is amazing.

“I have no idea where she gets her energy from.

“Working together has been the most amazing experience and it’s something I’d love to do with my own daughters.”

This year the Italian Job event will be held at Imola, Italy, on October 11, and will be supporting Buttle UK, who help children and young people in social need, including an estimated 400,000 children living in the UK who do not have their own bed.

Freddie said: “These causes are incredibly important to us, and we will continue to support them.”