One of the charities I have decided to raise money for The Goed Life, a charity set up to help people with learning disabilities gain meaningful employment to allow them access to a stronger sense of purpose, direction, and belonging in their community.
I first came across this charity after working for the founding family, the Goedhuis’, on one of their family holidays to Cornwall. They set it up after Sam Goedhuis, who has Down’s Syndrome, started work in a local café, and found it offered him the chance to feel more of a sense of belonging in the community, and the chance to socialise and realise his own enormous potential. As they disclose on their website, roughly 94% of the 1.5 million people in the UK with learning disabilities are currently unemployed, and they wish to change that. When I decided to do this challenge, I quickly thought back to an email I’d received from Laura Goedhuis, telling me about their charity, with the message that if I ever decided to ‘do something crazy’ I should think of them, and so that’s exactly what I wanted to do!
In the short time I spent with the Goedhuis’, I found myself particularly inspired by their unwavering dedication to Sam, his friend Simon, and many others who benefit from this charity. Therefore I felt compelled to follow their example and do whatever I could to help their incredible work grow. They really do some amazing work providing life-changing opportunities for incredible people to allow them to live in a world that doesn’t define and limit them for reasons they cannot control.
Please see their website below for a more detailed look at the work they do:
After speaking to a few people who have undertaken this challenge, most seem to agree that the hardest part to deal with is the mental strain. I will be alone on the ocean for around 2 months. This psychological element ties in to the work of the other of my two chosen charities, which is the Campaign Against Living Miserably, or CALM.
Mental health problems are, at their core, particularly lonely afflictions, and so I felt it a particularly meaningful decision to attempt this challenge solo. I felt it is almost a metaphor for the hardship so many face on a day to day basis. Moreover, as someone who has first hand experience of various forms of mental health problems both in myself and people I know, it is a particularly personal decision to do my bit to raise money and awareness for this cause.
CALM in numbers:
How can your donations help?
£12.20 can fund a potentially life-saving call on our helpline
£24 can provide support materials for a family who have lost someone to suicide
£109 can equip a volunteer
£440 can train a professional helpline worker to speak to people who are struggling
In 2023, CALM’s helpline staff gave more than 3 million minutes of support.
That’s 3 million+ minutes of helping someone struggling.
3 million+ minutes spent finding a way forward together.
3 million+ minutes of life-saving conversations.
On average, 115 people take their own lives every week in the UK alone. CALM is fighting to change these statistics, not only by raising awareness, but providing advice to those who need it about their mental health and general wellbeing. I hope, by supporting them, that I can do all I can in this venture to help raise even more awareness.
Please look for more detail about their work on their website:
How to donate?
Click the link below to find my Givestar Page, and thank you so much in advance…!