This year I will be taking part in the London to Brighton Cycle Ride to raise money for Fellowship Afloat Charitable Trust (FACT).

Fellowship Afloat is a Christian outdoor adventure centre based onboard a restored lightship, moored on the east coast of Essex. Their mission is to open doors of possibility in the minds of young people by providing the space and the opportunity—away from busy, screen-centric modern life—for adventure, for an experience of nature and companionship that will live in their memory for a lifetime.

During term time, schools (often from the heart of London) take classes of children from all different backgrounds to Fellowship Afloat where they stay aboard the big red lightship, Trinity, for a week filled with outdoor activities and time-out to make new friends outside their everyday educational setting. These activities include, for example: high-ropes- a multifunctional climbing structure where students climb heights of up to 20 metres all harnessed up and connected via rope to a belaying peer under the careful supervision of an instructor; sit-on-top kayaking- where students learn to craft the art of the paddle on our protected saltwater bathing pool; and my favourite, of course, sailing- where crews of up to 3 children are paired up with an experienced instructor like myself onboard traditional, tanned sailed dinghies and sail in flotilla for a day around the mouth of the Blackwater estuary, stopping off at a beach for lunch and games. These activities have been developed in-house across decades to enable young people both to grow in their own self esteem and confidence as individuals and to develop the skills necessary to work with their peers as a team.

At weekends and outside of term-time, Fellowship Afloat hosts youth groups for retreats and community bonding, as well as specialised weekends for groups such as artists and nature lovers, with Trinity transformed into a watercolour studio and a birdwatching hub, respectively. Their wealth of sailing knowledge is put to good use too, often teaching official RYA two-day sailing and powerboating courses as well as a number of youth-training schemes in the holidays. It was on these courses that I first learned to sail and to go on to becoming a member of the volunteer community which surrounds Fellowship Afloat. Starting aged just 14, helping bake cakes in the galley, I eventually built up my experience and qualification portfolio to become an instructor, and now I regularly enjoy volunteering at weekends.

Fellowship Afloat has put on various kinds of fundraising events over the years to raise money for new projects or restorations etc, but one of the biggest challenges is to keep the charity's bursary bank full in order that every young person has the opportunity to come onboard Trinity. The bursary bank exists to assist schools and families facing financial difficulties, becoming particularly imperative in recent years. Every penny of this fund raiser will go to this fund as it is particularly important to me that no one gets left behind.

For some fun videos and more information about Fellowship Afloat please follow this link- https://www.fact.org.uk/