Open invitation to join us

Dear Fellow Coast to Coaster,

I write to you to invite you to join me on a charity cycle ride along the 140 mile route from Tynemouth to Whitehaven. The three day ride starts in Tynemouth early on May 12th 2011. I am aiming at raising a group total of £10,000 through this event. With your help and active participation in both the ride and fundraising we can support the fantastic outdoor sports activity programs the Back-Up Trust are running to enable participants with spinal cord injuries to get “back up and out there” following a spinal cord injury.

My motivation is simple; following an accident myself I luckily sustained only a minor spinal injury. It was a traumatic experience and it has taken me a long time to adjust to. Every day I feel incredibly lucky that I am still able to walk. Through my volunteer work at the Northampton Canoe & Kayak Club I have started to work outdoors with people with disabilities and can see the profoundly positive impact this has. I have recently been selected as a volunteer to a buddy to accompany and support a group of 9 spinal cord injured participants, in March 2011, as they learn to ski at a specialist centre.

Every eight hours someone is told they may not walk again.

Spinal cord injury does not discriminate. Breaking your back or neck is frighteningly easy to do and can happen to anyone through a road traffic accident, illness, sporting injury, or simply by tripping down the stairs. Paralysis is permanent. There is no cure. Sustaining a spinal cord injury not only means coming to terms with life in a wheelchair, it also leads to the loss of muscle control and sensation. Many things that were previously taken for granted become impossible and life is changed forever. Bladder, bowel and sexual function are all affected too. The suicide rate for people with spinal cord injury is five times higher than the national average, 20 per cent of people leave NHS spinal centres clinically depressed and 32 per cent have clinical anxiety.

The Back-Up Trust is here to support people in their darkest hours and inspires people to transform their lives. We understand that a spinal cord injury can be devastating and can also mean a loss of freedom – freedom to lead an independent life. All our services aim to liberate people and enable them to live beyond spinal cord injury rather than be defined by it. We provide wheelchair skills training, mentoring and rehabilitative activity courses which grow confidence and independence. We show people that they can still realise their potential after a spinal cord injury.

I know that May is a long way off but I’d ask you to start to think about fundraising and start asking your friends and colleagues if they can help to make a charitable donation or donate a prize that we can auction to enable the Back-Up Trust to continue to offer such fantastic courses, offering people the opportunity to get “back up and out there” following a spinal cord injury.

Please make cheques payable to ‘Back-Up Trust’ or donate online at:


http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/backup2012c2c

Thanks for making a difference.


Yours sincerely

William Penrice

"What Back-Up offers is beyond your wildest imagination when you are lying in a hospital having been told you will never walk again.” Andy (31)