Royal Flying Doctor Service 2023 Bright Smiles Charity Ride gets ready to cruise

Bill Patrick, ride organiser and an enthusiastic motorbike rider for almost 40 years, will be setting-off in a group of 21 riders on Friday, April 28, as part of the 2023 Bright Smiles Charity Ride, raising money for the RFDS Dental Program.

"I just wish more people would do it," Mr Patrick, who resides in Newcastle and will be travelling to Dubbo to begin the ride, told the Daily Liberal.

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"If people understood how gratifying it is, and what wonderful people you meet, more people would do it for sure."

The four-night motorcycle ride will have participants ride through regional NSW, raising awareness for a critical dental program for remote NSW communities who would otherwise have no access to oral health services.

The ride will have attendees travel from Dubbo to Bulahdelah, aiming to raise $50,000 for the dental program.

The riders will tour the RFDS base, meet members of the dental team and visit the RFDS Visitor Experience Centre before hitting the road for the first leg of the journey. Riders will stop overnight in Bathurst, Gloucester (two nights), and finally Bulahdelah.

"I've been helping raise money for the RFDS for 20 years and owning a motorbike and all that sort of stuff it seems like an ideal way to have bit of fun, see a bit of countryside, and enjoy some small-town hospitality - and the places we ride to are an added bonus of helping people receive care," Mr Patrick said.

"This is the seventh year I've done the ride and some of the people I'll catch up with [on Friday] have done all sorts of rides ... once you go, a lot of people go back ... It gets in your system a bit."

Mr Patrick's first RFDS fundraiser was in 2000 and he said it was "humbling" meeting people RFDS helps in remote locations.

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"Realising not everyone lives within a stone's throw of a doctor or a dentist. Some people ... have to travel hundreds of kilometres and being able to help is such a rewarding thing - in my little way, helping people who would otherwise suffer and struggle," Mr Patrick said.

In 2021-22, while still being impacted by COVID restrictions, the RFDS dental team conducted 665 clinics across 31 locations in rural and remote NSW and Queensland, seeing more than 3,750 patients.

Now in its seventh year, Bright Smiles is the motorcycle spin-off of the famous Outback Car Trek, an annual pilgrimage involving more than 100 vintage cars that are specially prepared to take on Australian backroads. Over 33 years, the OCT has raised more than $33.5 million.