ABOUT YARIS

One Sunday morning in May 2012, on a random casual visit to Whilton Mill in Northampton, Yaris first came into contact with KartForce.  He was 6 years old.

 

To him it was a group of people who had lost limbs and people who had artificial limbs.  He was inquisitive and curious, so I explained who and what KartForce was – a kart race team of injured troops - and about the Forces. 

 

We stayed and spent some 2 - 3 hours watching the boys racing.

 

In August 2013 – 15 months later - Yaris swam 56 lengths of Northampton Swimming Pool for fun - a total distance of 1 Mile – non-stop in just over 1 hour 10 minutes.  We were very proud parents.  

 

It was such an achievement for a boy of 7 that a number of our friends gave him some money.  One of our friends, who is a serving Sgt in the RAF and who was just deploying to Afghanistan, said that he would give Yaris 25p for every length that he completed to a charity of his choice.  Not having spoken to Yaris since May 2012 about KartForce he, without any hesitation or prompting, said that his charity was ‘the men who lost arms and legs that he saw in the karts’. 

 

On his return to school  Yaris addressed the whole school in assembly and spoke about how had had swam a mile and about “his charity KartForce.”

 

In early December Yaris aims to swim 2km – 70 lengths of Northampton Swimming Pool.  But this time not for fun - his target is to raise money to buy a kart for KartForce.

 

 

FROM KARTFORCE

“Young Yaris has touched every one of us with his desire to support us.  Many of our lads are fathers with children the same age as Yaris, so they were extremely moved to find out that they had had such an impact on this young fella.

 

The lads go to tracks and are so focused on their racing, that they never really appreciated the impact they have on those around them.

 

Yaris has helped us appreciate that we are more than just a kart racing team.  He’s taught us that we have a positive and lasting impact on others, especially the younger generations.  This has been a very interesting and powerful lesson for us at KartForce, and we have Yaris to thank for opening our eyes to this.

 

We hope you will be able to support this young man and show him that even a boy of 7 can make a positive impact on society.”