TRUST PATRON SAILS ALL WEEK ON ELLEN MACARTHUR TRUST SUMMER SAILING TRIP
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Article Date: 2008-07-24
View Count: 346
Young people from
The trips take young
people in recovery from cancer and leukaemia sailing for four days, these trips
follow The Trusts involvement in the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island
Race and will lead into their final year as the official charity at Skandia
Cowes week.
The sailing trips
are designed to provide a unique experience for the young people that join them.
Each child is encouraged to work as part of a team and become involved on every
level of the trip, from helping to sail the yachts, through to the cooking and
cleaning for their fellow crew on board. Each voyage is lead by experienced,
professional sailors who are used to working with children. The charity now
takes four times the number of young people sailing that it did in 2005, and
this year The Trust is working with three new hospitals in
The first day and
evening is spent at
Day two and The
Trust boats set off from
On day three, they
embarked on an exhilarating sight seeing trip aboard a fast Rigid inflatable
boat (RIB) out of
Jack Girling, from Bexleyheath
South East London “The week has been
even better than I expected, I had never sailed before and I now can’t wait to
go again. It’s been a brilliant experience, good to be away from home and have
the chance to meet new people”.
The trip had fantastic weather for
most of the week with kids enjoying treasure hunts, fishing trips and water
fights. The highlight of the week for most of the kids came on the third day
when Ellen took all the kids out on the orienteering trip on the fast RIB out of
John Mckiernrn 13 years old from
Twin brook
Jackveline McCloy 20 Ballymana
NIreland had returned for the week as a helper after sailing five years
previously with the trust ”The trust has really made a big
difference when I was in recovery five years ago, I have now come back to
volunteer and its great to give something back, all the volunteers are amazing
and work so hard”.
Ellen always endeavours to join
each trust trip, usually spending the penultimate day sailing and then staying
for the BBQ on Newtown Creek. This Trip was slightly different as Ellen joined
the whole trip as a mate on one of the four yachts sailing last week “Last week was a first I have sailed for the whole 4
day. It was a wonderful experience to be there from the moment everyone arrived,
to waving them off as they left. The young people were just fantastic, extremely
funny, quite entertaining and hugely inspirational. We did everything from
catching mackerel to beach fires, rib rides and football on the field. It’s
great to see the change in confidence of the young people over the four days,
this is all down to the volunteers and other skippers who were great. If the
young people wish to share their stories they can blow you away with their
matter of fact way of speaking about their illness. They really are incredibly
brave. You cannot help but be inspired by
them."
For more information go to: http://www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org
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