New Life charity raises £42k with annual sportathon at David Lloyd Newbury
More than £40k was raised for a West Berkshire charity in its annual 24-hour sportathon – and thanks to a £1,000 cake.
Around 1,250 people took part in the New Life event at David Lloyd Newbury, with members and non-members signing up to challenges such as spinning, swimming, tennis, triathlon and a host of high-intensity and wellbeing classes.
One intrepid cyclist, Ash Naik, even managed 100 miles on the spin bike.
The Tennisathon, sponsored by Donnington New Homes, was a huge success with four teams playing a full 24 hours of tennis.
Teams were sponsored by Azego TS Ltd, Roc Search, Donnington New Homes and winning team DCE Agency with an apt team name of Full Metal Racquets.
The winning team members were Jim Anderson, Steve Masters, Richard Pool, Josh Streak, Samantha Marchelli, Claire Whitehouse and John Hartley.
Other highlights were the auction - brilliantly compered by racquets manager Adam Chadwick - which raised £9,600 and a cake from the cake stall which sold for £1,000.
Saturday night saw a Partyathon, with entertainment provided by ABBA tribute band ABBA LOVE, who got the crowds up dancing.
New Life Special Care Babies is a charitable organisation dedicated to providing neo-natal equipment to special care baby units across the UK.
And the focus of this year’s event was to fund a specialist ventilator for the Buscot Unit at The Royal Berkshire Hospital, in Reading.
The SLE6000 ventilator is optimised for the smallest of babies to improve outcomes. Premature and very tiny babies will often be attached to a ventilator from the moment they are born because their lungs will not have fully developed and many babies will remain on a ventilator for weeks, sometimes months.
Over its 27 years, New Life has supported numerous hospitals across the South of England with its first being The Great Western in Swindon where the charity’s CEO, Trevor Goodall‘s twin boys Joshua and Samuel were born at 24 weeks in 1995. They sadly died a week later and Mr Goodall went on to create the charity in their memory.
“We were also delighted that the Brighter Futures team from Swindon took part in some of the activities,” Mr Goodall said.
“Due to the incredible amount raised this year, the charity can now buy a Hamilton ventilator for The Great Western Hospital.
“This piece of equipment will be vital for the children's emergency department.”
Tina Outlaw, major gifts manager, added: “It’s hard to find the words to express how grateful we are and what wonderful news this is for the children’s emergency department.”
The event took place on May 11-12.
