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When contemplating her 60th birthday, which was in March 2017, Lynn thought that she would like a year of celebration and as part of that would like to walk the Thames again. Andrea, who is 50 this year, agreed that would be fun, so from 14 to 20 May 2017, Lynn & Andrea will once again be walking the Thames Path.

This time they won’t be walking from Lechlade to Windsor but from Oxford to Hampton Court Palace a distance of around 100 miles. They are, however, once again walking to raise money for Lifecentre  (www.lifecentre.uk.com ) a fantastic charity that supports survivors of rape & sexual abuse to unlock the past, survive the present and reclaim the future. Andrea was involved in helping to set up Lifecentre over 17 years ago and is Chair of Trustees. Lynn is now Lifecentre's Clinical Director and has been involved with Lifecentre since 2002, when she began volunteering on the phone lines.

Each year, approximately 400,000 females and 72,000 males report having been sexually assaulted in England and Wales. On average that is 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 8 boys that have suffered some form of sexual abuse. The ripple effects of this human rights atrocity are impacting millions upon millions of people around the world.

Despite the volume of people affected by sexual abuse, specialised aftercare provision is in short supply. Survivors have few places to turn for support and existing services are often over subscribed. Lifecentre Sussex started in 2001 in response to the recognition that there were no specialised services available between Portsmouth and Brighton for people who had been raped and sexually abused. We started small by running a volunteer helpline 2 nights a week and now have 3 venues across Sussex providing face to face counselling alongside other specialised services.

We would like you to give generously because sexual violation is a horrendous experience to go through male or female, child or adult, and is potentially extremely isolating because, as a society, we don't like to talk about it, even after there have been so many high profile cases in the media. Lifecentre provides the help and support desperately needed so people don't have to be alone in overcoming this nightmare trauma and can really make strides in getting their life back. £900 would fund Lifecentre therapy for one individual: we would like to try to raise the funds for 5 people to receive Lifecentre counselling if we can. So again, please give generously – thank you.