Charities
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CHARITIES BY RUNNING IN
OUR HASTINGS HALF MARATHON
Martha Trust is a local charity that supports young people and adults with profound disabilities and provides a home for life, along with respite facilities and support for families. They have a home called Mary House on The Ridge in Hastings and 2 homes in Kent.
At Martha, we pride ourselves on transforming the lives of the people we support. Adults with profound disabilities are amongst the most vulnerable in society and need to be nurtured and supported in a safe, loving environment, something we are very proud of offering at Martha.
Although the nursing care we provide is funded by local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups through their duty of care, we rely on the support of individuals and local organisations to keep Martha Trust operating and maintained and to enable the extras that make the difference between giving supportive, holistic care and just minding someone – the very worst cases of which too regularly make the news. At Martha 87p in every pound of our income goes to the care of the people we support. We need to raise £235,000 this year.
We would be incredibly grateful if you would consider fundraising for Martha when doing the Hastings half marathon. Please contact Kerry Banks at fundraising@marthatrust.org.uk
or kerrybanks@marthatrust.org.uk. If you have any questions regarding the work we undertake at Martha and to find out how important any fundraising would be, please call us on 01304 610448. Or visit our website: http://www.marthatrust.org.uk/
Every year The Sara Lee Trust supports hundreds of local people who have been diagnosed with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses by providing free counselling, complementary therapies and therapeutic group activities to people in Hastings and Rother.
The Trust is also the dedicated provider of end-of-life counselling and complementary therapy services to patients of St Michael’s Hospice (St Leonards-on-Sea) and the Rye, Winchelsea and District Memorial Hospital.
We would be incredibly grateful if you would consider fundraising for The Sara Lee Trust when taking part in the Hastings Half Marathon, whether running or walking the distance, you will be a Superhero to so many who need a ‘hand to hold’ during such a difficult time in their lives.
If you would like to support us and help raise vital funds, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Cathy Cobley at fundraising@saraleetrust.org or call 01424 457969. You can also find out more about supporting The Sara Lee Trust at www.saraleetrust.org/hastings-half-marathon.
Have you considered running for St Michael’s Hospice? By joining our team, you can make a big difference to the lives of people in our local community affected by life-limiting illnesses.
St Michael’s Hospice supports the community of Hastings and Rother to live well with dying, death and loss. Having an advanced illness can raise all sorts of practical, spiritual and emotional issues, which affect not only the patient, but their family and friends too.
St Michael’s Hospice is heavily dependent on the generosity of local individuals, companies, groups and trusts. The NHS provides around one third of our total income as grants. Did you know it costs around £5.5 million per year to provide our Hospice services?
By running for the Hospice, you will be supporting a huge range of services, including in-patient care, wellbeing support, social work and expert bereavement services for those coming to terms with the loss of a loved one.
On the day, we will be there in our marquee to look after you and your supporters before and after the race. To show our gratitude, all runners will receive a Runners Reward Bag full of goodies to help your recovery (as well as all the tea and cakes you can manage in the marquee!).
Runners will also be provided with a St Michael’s Hospice t-shirt or running vest and support with all fundraising activities.
To find out more, please contact Anthony Mannion in the Fundraising Team on 01424 456 396 or fundraising@stmichaelshospice.com
At Active Hastings we are proud to join the We Are Undefeatable movement, by encouraging local people with long-term health conditions to keep active. The national movement involving 15 of the UK’s leading health and social care charities, supports people with a range of long-term health conditions to be active in a way that works for them.
Alan, an Active Hastings We Are Undefeatable champion kick starts the campaign by sharing his story: “Being around others, who have a shared experience of a long-term health condition, means we can support and motivate each other. After a gym session I feel great, I feel that I’ve really achieved something. There’s nothing better than getting the blood pumping”. For Alan’s full story visit: www.activehastings.org.uk/weareundefeatable
Being Undefeatable is understanding how you feel can change from day-to-day, that everybody’s situation is unique, and that moving more when you can is just as important as accepting when you can’t. We Are Undefeatable believes that every achievement, no matter how small it might seem to someone else, is worth celebrating. There are a range of exercise classes to suit everyone, check out the Active Hastings website for the list of activities happening near you (www.activehastings.org.uk).
Every year The Sara Lee Trust supports hundreds of local people who have been diagnosed with cancer and other Little Gate Supported Employment was founded in 2013 by Claire Cordell, who is a mother of three children, including Evie, who was born with a learning disability. Claire soon realised that there were no opportunities for Evie after she left school. Claire wanted to change that. She founded Little Gate Supported Employment to ensure that adults with learning disabilities can have the same aspirations as neurotypical people. The key to that is employment – we believe that learning-disabled adults deserve a chance to have a paid job just like everyone else. This holds the key to making their lives as fulfilled and independent as possible. Many adults with learning disabilities don’t expect much from life. However, we believe that neurodiverse adults should have the same hopes and dreams as everyone else.
Little Gate Supported Employment trains and supports adults with learning disabilities and Autism into paid employment. Work Training takes place on the beautiful Little Gate Farm in Beckley, East Sussex. At the farm, our learning-disabled beneficiaries train in the following:
- Hospitality & Catering
- Housekeeping
- Office and administration skills
- Animal care
- Horticulture
- Woodland management
To prepare our Work Trainees for successful long-term employment, we take a tiered approach: Work training, Job coaching and career progression, Workplace Supported Employment. We provide long-lasting support to our trainees to ensure they can transform their lives.
We are raising funds to help us to continue this work. Please contact us at info@littlegate.org.uk for more information.
The One Hundred Hulk Challenge
We are a local family, living in the Old Town where we have been shown incredible support by the local community. We have a daughter Wren, as well as our beautiful son Winston who was diagnosed with Ataxia Telangiectasia at the age of 2 when we began to notice he was having problems with his balance. A-T is a genetic, neurological disease which is degenerative. It is life-limiting and currently has no cure. Children with A-T have a life expectancy of around 25, however, they also have a greatly increased risk of cancer. Winston will be 10 this year and is attending school with the help of a fantastic 1:1. We have continued to fundraise for Winston since diagnosis, and in 2018, a team of 9 Hulks (Win’s favourite superhero) ran to raise money for The AT Society, who have supported us throughout coming to terms with the disease. The Hulks raised over £4,000 and it was suggested that the following year we reach a bit higher and try to gather 100 Hulks for the run!
the Hulks ran again in 2019 and 2022 when we also had an amazing team of Mini Hulks made up of Win’s school friends and over £10,000 was raised for the AT Society. We would love to have more “Hulks” supporting us in 2023 than ever before! we have a Hulk ‘committee’ now who are working with us to help organise the various aspects of the event and we would welcome new people to this team. Please do get in contact if you can help, we would greatly appreciate your support in any way you can offer it.
Winston is such a fun-loving, caring and outgoing person. He brings us so much joy and we are fully committed to making this a success. Please help us to turn Hastings Green at the ½ marathon on 2023.23.
Sally Milligan
Event and Community Partnerships Fundraising Manager
Sally@atsociety.org.uk – http://www.atsociety.org.uk – Tel: 01582 760733
Chestnut Tree House is the children’s hospice for Sussex and South East Hampshire. Thanks to support from the local community children and families who know they don’t have long together have the chance to live life to the full and say goodbye in the way that is right for them. On a visit to Chestnut Tree House, kids can be astronauts for the day in the multi-sensory room, discover creepy crawlies on a woodland walk, or form their very own pop group in the music room. It is a place where parents can just be parents and not carers, and where siblings have people to talk to who understand.
As well as care provided at the House, there is a Community Nursing Team that visits families at home, taking children out to explore their local community or simply giving tired families and carers the chance to take a well-earned break. Then, when the time comes, Chestnut Tree House helps families say goodbye, in whatever way feels right for them, at home or in the hospice itself. They also offer ongoing bereavement support for the whole family. Why not use your run to become part of Team Chestnut and make a difference with every step? Get in touch with the events team at events@chestnut-tree-house.org.uk to join us!
Anyone running for Macmillan can leave their belongings with us and will get a free drink and cake when they finish. Anybody who would like to run for us can get all the details from Doreen or Dave at 07936 476040. Macmillan not only funds Doctors and nurses, it is there for anyone living with cancer. Next year is going to be a very difficult year for people who are receiving treatment. Keeping warm is essential, so Macmillan grants are going to be even more important with the cost of energy going up.
Hastings and Rother Samaritans – your local Samaritans branch
We support those in emotional distress, including those thinking about suicide. Whatever people are going through, whoever they are and whatever life has done to them, Samaritans will face it with them. Life could have taken an unexpected turn or problems may have built up over time. Call 116 123 – we are always here at the end of the phone, round the clock every day of the year to listen and support people as they go through tough times. Hastings and Rother Samaritans is completely self-funding and it’s the public’s kind donations that help us deliver our service. If you would like to run for us and for more information about fundraising, please call Graeme on 07485 062232.
Hastings & Rother Voluntary Association for the Blind is committed to providing support to people who are blind or partially sighted in our local community.
We offer a wide range of services to improve their daily lives – from initial home visits, demonstrating specialist equipment and technology, and access to social groups, weekly clubs & events. HRVAB also run a care home in St Leonards that specialises in sight impairment. With currently only 17 residents we provide quality care!
We rely on donations to continue our work. Please do select us for your fundraising efforts – we appreciate every penny! Select us on Just Giving (Charity no. 1102016). Contact us at hrvab@freeuk.com.
Lisa Sloan
Executive Assistant, HRVAB
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