A BIG thank you and congratulations to our 8 amazing London Marathon runners.
Running 26.2 miles is a huge achievement and our runners also did a fantastic job raising thousands of pounds to help Contact reach more families with disabled children.
We had a brilliant time cheering on all our runners at Mile 16 despite the rain and saw many of them zoom past us to give us a wave. One of them, Jeremy Wright, even broke a Guinness World Record for being the fastest marathon carrying golf clubs!
One of our runners said: “I saw you at mile 16, which is a good place to stand as it’s a killer from that point on…Must say though, London is amazing – the crowds (of which you were part) and volunteers are just fantastic! Thanks for letting me run for Contact – so proud to do so!”
Want to run next year’s London Marathon for Contact?
The ballot for next year’s London Marathon is now open and we are looking for runners to join our team.
If you would like to join Team Contact in 2024, do get in touch today by emailing us: [email protected].
We’ll be there to support you in your fundraising journey from the word go!
This Sunday 23rd April, our eight brilliant London Marathon runners will finally take on the streets of London!
Some of our runners have run for us before, and some for the first time. We are truly humbled by their support to us and incredibly proud of each and every one of them. They have trained and fundraised tirelessly over the last few months. And this weekend, they’ll get to bask in the glory of running an incredible 26.2 miles while crowds of supporters cheer them on!
Our runner Jeremy says:
“My first ever marathon was in 2018, when I ran in support of Contact. I’m doing that again in 2023. It is important for me to continue with as much charity work as I’m able to, especially with the current cost of living challenges. To help families with disabled children get the support they need, my fundraising efforts will help go towards making that happen”
Jeremy
Our runner Phil said:
“Next Sunday will see me participating in my 16th London Marathon following a two-year break. I had stated that my last one in 2020 virtually would be my one. I felt I had achieved all that I had set out to do by raising awareness of hemiplegia and the great work of Contact and HemiHelp following our son’s George right-sided hemiplegia diagnosis in 2003, raising much needed funds along the way.
“The impact of Covid-19 restrictions to ‘normal life’ and the current cost of living crisis made me realise that help for families with disabled children is needed more today than it did when I hung up my trainers three years ago. Contact helped 182,000 families with disabled children in 2021/22. This shows their work is absolutely vital, and they need our support”.
A huge thank you and good luck to all our runners! Every one of you has made a tremendous difference to the families Contact supports, and we can’t wait to wave and cheer you on this Sunday!
If you’d like to come and support our runners with us, you can register for free. And if you’re interested in joining our team next year, contact us on [email protected] today.
Huge congratulations to Laura from Colchester, our third Contact Weekly Lottery£1,000 winner of 2023!
Laura is a parent to two autistic sons and a son and daughter with complex needs.
I first heard about the Contact Lottery because I follow Contact on Facebook and have attended a few of their Q&A sessions.
I’ve found Contact’s advice really helpful, so I decided to sign up to the Contact Lottery and give something back. And I’m really happy I did! I’m so pleased to have won, I almost can’t believe it.
Laura from Colchester
We’re so pleased Laura’s chances have turned into a win. If you join us – you could be next!
Play Contact’s Weekly Lottery for as little as £1 a week and a chance to win up to £10,000. All the while, you’ll be funding the vital support services that made a difference to families like Laura’s.
Congratulations to Laura and good luck to all our wonderful players in the next draw!
Parallel Windsor is an award-winning fundraising event, taking place on the stunning grounds of the Windsor Great Park on Sunday 2 July 2023. The event offers a wide range of challenge activities for people of all ages, health conditions and abilities.
You’ll also gain access to the Festival of Inclusivity, packed with plenty of inclusive fun and entertainment for the whole family. You’ll enjoy delicious food, picnic areas, live music, arts and crafts, storytelling, sports, as well as information about skills and careers, technology and mobility.
What challenges activities can I do?
“Start together, finish whenever” – walk, wheel or run, there’s no time limit.
Challenge distances include 100m, 1k, 5k, 10k and a unique SuperSensory1k – all with Windsor Castle as the backdrop!
The 100m and 1k events all take place on the Long Walk. The 5k and 10k distances have a lovely route in the Great Park, with the start and finish on the Long Walk.
All ages and abilities and mobility aids are welcome!
How to secure your place
To join us, you’ll need to fundraise £75 for Contact and take on one of the challenge events listed above. You’ll also need to cover the cost of a £10 admin fee.
Worried about meeting the fundraising target? Don’t be. One of our specialist team will be on-hand every step of the way to give you one-to-one support, fundraising materials and tips.
And of course, you can invite your friends and family to join the festival for the day for only £5 per person plus booking fee.
The festival is taking place at 10am on Sunday 2 July 2023 at The Windsor Great Park, SL4 2BD.
As a fully accessible event, Parallel Windsor offers on-site parking, on-site mobility aid rental, accessible toilets, paramedics and a quiet space. All service animals are welcome.
With this year’s London Marathon just over a month away, our wonderful team of runners is already raring to go!
On Sunday 23 April, runners like Aditi will be pounding the pavements of London, going past the city’s most famous landmarks while thousands of supporters cheer them on.
Aditi told us: “I’m super excited to run the London Marathon next month for Contact! I really enjoyed working at Contact a few years ago on secondment and I learnt first-hand about all the services that Contact provides to support families with disabled children. Running the marathon and fundraising for Contact felt like a great way to support Contact’s great work!”
We’re so thrilled to have Aditi’s support this year and are looking forward to seeing all our brilliant London Marathon runners run past us in April. With their support we can be there to provide vital advice, information and support to thousands of UK families with disabled children when they need it – we truly couldn’t do it without you!
Best of luck to everyone!
Thinking about joining our team next year? We have places for 2024 and would love to have you on board! Get in touch today by emailing [email protected]
In just under three weeks, registration for the London Marathon 2023 will close.
We are still on the lookout for some intrepid runners who would like to represent us and take on the 26.3 miles across the city of London!
London Marathon returns to April weekend
For the first time since the pandemic, the London Marathon will return to its regular schedule and take place on Sunday 23 April.
You can join thousands of runners, including elite athletes, racing the iconic route while huge crowds cheer you on around the course. The day’s atmosphere is truly like no other!
This is your a chance to be part of one of the biggest marathons in the world.
We have a lower fundraising target than most charities, and we’ll there to support you with excellent training and fundraising advice from the word go.
Join a friendly team of runners, like Caroline, Head of the Child Brain Injury team at Burdon Bolt Kemp solicitors, who’s running her third marathon to raise money for our vital support services.
Early each year, we look back on the work we’ve done in the following 12 months and the impact we think we’ve made.
This helps us ensure we’re doing as much as we can to support families with disabled children. And it helps us demonstrate to our generous funders the difference their support makes.
We’ve just finished reviewing our statistics for 2022 and want to share them with you.
In 2022, our By Your Side project supported 1,054 parents in and out of hospital, including through information stands and coffee mornings.
Over 10,000 helpline calls
Our helpline team responded to 10,512 enquiries. This includes 1,015 benefits enquiries and 366 in-depth call-backs by the Family Finances helpline.
Additionally our teams in the regions, nations, By Your Side and London teams attended to 4,533 enquiries/1:1 appointments. This includes 1,049Listening Ear appointments.
One of our supporters had a fantastic start to the new year when they found out they’d won £1,000 in the Contact Weekly Lottery.
First time lucky!
Our lucky lottery player from Southport was delighted to hear that they’d won our first weekly draw of 2023.
They told us they had only just started playing the Contact Weekly Lottery in December. That was after they saw an advert on Facebook and decided to give it a go.
Could 2023 be your year too?
Every Friday, we are delighted to tell the lucky winners who play Contact’s Weekly lottery that they’ve won a cash prize.
Our lucky winner from the Merseyside was the only £1,000 winner that week, but over 50 players took home a cash prize in the same draw!
A fun and exciting way to help support our vital work, for as little as £1 a week you too could have the chance to win a prize of up to £10,000.
And the best part is that even if you don’t always win, playing our lottery means you’ll always be supporting other families.
Since we launched our lottery in July 2020, we’ve had over 2,000 winners and given away just under £22,000 in prizes!
And the majority of our £1,000 and £10,000 winners have been parent carers themselves, who tell us they play to help support other families like theirs.
Holly, mum to five-year-old twins born prematurely, was drained and exhausted meeting the demands of two young children with additional needs. She wasn’t getting any sleep and needed more space in the family home for her suddenly much larger family.
Holly turned to Contact for help. She spoke to Shona, Contact’s adviser, by telephone on our Listening Ear service. This provides hour-long telephone appointments for parents to get emotional support and a shoulder to cry on, as well as practical advice on any aspect of raising a disabled child.
Shona gave Holly much needed space to talk and offload. She provided her with advice about sleep and signed Holly up to one of our in-demand workshops to learn about strategies to get a good bedtime routine.
During a subsequent call, Shona was also able to advise Holly about getting a grant for home adaptations. This has meant the family can get an extension for an extra bedroom, which will allow them to care for the twins safely at home.
“Contact’s expertise, support and never-ending knowledge of how to fight such a draining system is life-changing.”
Holly
Holly and her family is just one of thousands we’ve helped in the last year thanks to our generous supports.
Did you know our weekly lottery helps fund our vital services?
In 2020, we launched the Contact Weekly Lottery to help fund our vital work providing families with disabled children the best possible guidance and information.
Playing our lottery is a fun and exciting way to support Contact, and from just £1 a week, players can win up to £10,000!
What’s even more incredible is that most of our £1,000 and £10,000 jackpot winners have been parent carers who play to help other people like them. It’s fantastic when we call to tell them the good news!
Dad of twin boys, Graeme Longstaff, originally planned to complete the London Marathon next weekend running with an incubator (aka the ‘runcubator’) – until he discovered that the event’s rules didn’t allow it.
Undeterred , he changed his plans to complete the 26.2-mile distance running between the 3 hospitals where his twin boys Ted and Bert were born 9 weeks early. They spent their first few months of their lives in hospital until they were strong enough to come home.
It wasn’t until Ted was two years old that he was diagnosed with hemiplegia which affects his right arm and leg.
Graeme said: “I’ll be doing my run on behalf of two charities: Contact and Bliss, who support families with premature or sick babies. We were told very early on that the boys many have some issues in the coming years being as they were born so early. Because of this, the first few years of their life was spent going to appointments to consultants , physiotherapy, scans etc. Contact and Bliss are two great charities who help people when they have no clue what is happening and are always there to offer help, guidance and support. To us they have been invaluable and I’m sure that’s the case for many others out there.”
Ted and Bert are now energetic 7 years olds.
Graeme continues: “Today, Ted is a super-happy little dude. He might not be able to climb trees and ride bikes like his twin brother, but he’s a bright kid with a positive outlook and huge passion for football which he plays every Saturday morning. There’s been many up and downs, head bumps by the dozen along the way as well as lots of trips for various leg splints to be made and trialled to help Ted from tripping over himself. We wouldn’t be where we are today without all the help and support from HemiHelp and their online community. From funding support to day trips to just being there to listen when no-one else will, they have been such a big part of our family and will remain so.”
Help raise vital funds for Contact and Bliss
You can donate to support Graeme’s marathon distance run to raise vital funds for Contact and Bliss at www.gofundme.com/f/theruncubator
If you would like to join Team Contact and run the London Marathon for us in 2023, get in touch today – email [email protected]. We have places and would be there to support you in your fundraising journey from the word go!
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