Teries can now wash their cars around the clock

Brodie Graham at his new 24-hour car wash. (Photo: BILL McBURNIE)

Brodie Graham – brother to Scottish rugby international Darcy – was just 17 when, with a little help from the bank of mum and dad, he opened Weensland Car Wash on the town’s Weensland Mill Industrial Estate.

Despite his tender years he has built up, through his hard work and determination, a loyal customer base in the last three years.

Now his business has expanded its service with a new 24-hour coin-operated car wash and vacuum machine which operates day and night after the outlet closes.

The rest of the Graham family at a fundraising event at the car wash in June. Mum Leah, Clark, dad Ali, Darcy and Rhianna. (Photo: BILL McBURNIE)

Brodie said: “You just stick a pound in and you can get a two and a half minute wash.

"We got this last week. It’s safe and secure and people have started to use it but it will take a wee bit of time to build up and for customers to realise that it’s there.

"It’s aimed at people going to work early in the morning, or people up late at night and on Sunday’s, when we are closed.

"It works for all cars and jeeps, maybe not lorries but most other vehicles.”

The car wash has a reputation for rugby-related fundraising events.

One such event in June had particular poignancy for Brodie.

His teenage brother Clark, a member of Hawick RFC Under-18s, spent three and a half weeks in a coma after he was involved in a car crash near Ashkirk in January.

Thankfully, he has made a good recovery and Brodie helped facilitate a fundraising car wash to raise funds and give thanks to the work of NHS staff who had cared for his younger sibling at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, the city’s Astley Ainslie hospital and the Borders General.

Brodie, now 20, said: “I have had the business for almost three years. I started with the car wash and got the valeting a year in, now we have the 24/7 washer. I have one other lad helping out, Finnen Gordon-Woolley.

"I started when I was 17, really young. I left school at 16 and left with my dad for a year doing landscaping and joinery.

"My dad helped me to set up and now I run it. Eventually I hope to do wheel refurbishments with powder-coat alloys. That’s something I’m looking at for the future.”