Story
<p>Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.</p>
<p> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><span style="font-size: small;">And a big thank-you to everyone who sponsored my Afasic Coastline walk so generously. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"><span style="font-size: small;">Your donations have helped save the club from threatened closure this Easter <span style="color: red;">so we are still going till the summer and determined to continue to keep it going for as long as we can. </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">In 1996 I became Afasic’s Development Officer in N.E. London. I soon met some teenage boys with speech and language difficulties who told me what they wanted was ‘somewhere to go with people like us on Friday night’. After two and a half years of fundraising and planning, <strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red;">the Afasic Youth Project was born</span></strong>. With huge commitment since from individual youth-workers and speech and language therapists, plus a rolling team of fantastic volunteers, the club has gone from strength to strength, developing a fun and varied onsite and offsite programme including very popular residential weekends –</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">Till</span></strong><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"> </span>now!.</span></strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The disastrous impact of the economic situation on voluntary organisations meant </span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: red; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">the club faced possible closure at Easter for lack of funds –</span></strong><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: red; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></strong><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></strong><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: red; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">now averted for another term by all of you who have donated here and from fundraising by staff, young people and their families and others who have stepped in as friends to the club. </span></strong></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">A year ago I couldn’t have done this walk – a badly broken hip meant that on our annual long weekend on the north Norfolk coast, I was on crutches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took my husband John and 2 friends to support me a few yards from our car up the sand dunes to even get a glimpse of the sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This year will be different - <span style="color: #ff0000;">(it was !)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>My aim is to walk at least 10 miles of the coast from Burnham Overy Staithe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it will certainly be something of a personal challenge as well as part of the Afasic Coastline Challenge! <span style="color: #ff0000;">(It was! - but enjoyable too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I covered a 12+ mile stretch of the coast but actually walked 17-18 miles over the 2 days with return journey to base on the first day) </span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">Thankyou for supporting the Afasic Youth Project by donating to this site.</span></span></strong></p>
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