Our Charities
One of our main motivations for doing the DW is to try and raise some money for charity. The 3 charities we ended up raising funds for were New Life Special Baby Care, Sue Ryder Care (Thorpe Hall) and Leukemia Research. Each one was special to us for different reasons and we raised over £5000 by completing the DW in 2010.
We are competing in the DW again in 2011 and aim to raise more money for our charities - a little more information about each one follows;
The New Life charity was started by my friend Trevor Goodall after his two little boys Joshua and Samuel were born prematurely and both died. This experience led him to start New Life to raise funds for local special baby care units that were in need of medical equipment to save babies’ lives.
When Ben committed to doing the 2010 race he expressed the desire to do something for the Sue Ryder Care at Thorpe Hall because of the wonderful support they gave to Ben and his family during the final months of his brother Matt’s life. They were to be our second charity.
Our third was Leukaemia research. Ben and I have a mutual friend called Simon Benson whos son Jacob was fighting against the disease. I have known Simon since I was a little boy at nursery school and we have been the best of friends for over 40 years now and both he and Jacob are an inspiration to me with the bravery they have shown.
Sue Ryder Care (Thorpe Hall)
Sue Ryder Care supports people with specialist palliative, end of life and long-term neurological care needs.
Each year they provide 4 million hours of care to people living with cancer, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease, stroke and brain injury.
New Life Special Baby Care
New Life is a local, Newbury based charity that specialises in providing equipment for premature or seriously ill babies. They have supported Special Baby Care Units in Swindon, Oxford, Basingstoke and Reading and have raised over £170,000 over the past 15 years.
http://newlifespecialcarebabies.org
Leukaemia Research
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) relies on the support of individuals, corporations and foundations to fund LLS's research initiatives, patient services and education programs. They are extremely grateful to our many generous donors and sponsors who made it possible for us to invest more than $600 million in research specifically targeting leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma since its first funding in 1954.