NCW Student Zac has recently completed a HUGE fundraising challenge to raise funds for two charities that are very special to him and his family – LOOK UK and The CVI Society.
Zac took the lead in organising the fundraiser along with his personal trainer Barnes Rose. The event was hosted in his home town and the challenge “Coast to Coast” challenged Zac, fellow clients and their families/supporters to travel 157km as quickly as they could on a static bike/rower and ski machine.
LOOK UK and The CVI Society have been just amazing to Zac and us as a family in the last 2-3 years. LOOK provided a mentor to Zac who is still in touch with him regularly and as a charity they have been an enormous emotional support to us. The CVI Society has also provided amazing support to Zac and our family, growing our knowledge of CVI and helping us understand CVI better. 2 years ago, a special needs PT started up in our area called Barnes Rose PT. Their aim was to get young people with disabilities to engage in physical activity – they specialise in neurodiversity but also many other challenges. Zac was one of their first clients – they have never come across a child with VI before or one with physical challenges and neuro diversity as a combination. Zac could not pedal a static bike or walk on a running machine, couldn’t row… but they worked so hard with him, whilst building his confidence, playing his favourite musical theatre tracks in the background and obviously a bit of ABBA too (because that’s a must!!), and 2 years later along with all the hard work Pete Boyle at NCW has put in, he is so much fitter and stronger than he ever thought possible. As recognition of Zac’s hard work, Barnes Rose decided to support Zac with his idea to fundraise for LOOK UK and The CVI Society with a static physical challenge. At the same time they wanted to raise money to buy a defibrillator because some of the children/young adults who attend have other challenging conditions. They entitled the challenge Coast to Coast – challenging Zac and another client and their families/supporters to travel 157km as quickly as they could on a static bike/rower and ski machine. They set a fundraising challenge of £3,000. This took place last Saturday 1st June. It was such a great event. Zac was so proud and we worked really hard to raise funds with Go Fund Me. Over 3 hours he rotated every 5 minutes on one of the machines and they smashed the distance in 3 hours 22 minutes and 30 seconds. We all took part helping him and many other supporters of Barnes Rose. We also smashed the fundraising target and have just exceeded £4,000!
“I really wanted to raise some money for Barnes Rose and my 2 favourite charities who have been there for me these past years when life has been very difficult. Being blind is hard, and I just felt like giving up on life. Barnes Rose have helped me do things I never thought possible and my VI charities have been incredible giving me a mentor and helping to teaching me braille. I’m so proud to have helped raise over £4,000 for these amazing causes”
On Celebration Day, the NCW Community came together to celebrate the achievements of NCW students. This of course included Zac, his family and their amazing fundraising efforts. Look UK and The CVI Society were also invited.
Mrs Perks congratulated Zac for his inspirational work and for being a credit to the NCW community.
We are so proud of Zac here at NCW for his brilliant fundraising effort and we were delighted for him to present cheques to Look-UK and the CVI Society at our recent Celebration Day at school. We work very closely with both these organisations in our day to day work educating young people a vision impairment and they are very worthy causes. Well done Zac!”
Jane Ring from Look UK also thanked Zac and accepted a very large cheque!
We are immensely grateful to Zac and everyone who supported his amazing fundraising achievement for LOOK UK. The LOOK mentor project relies on essential fundraising to operate. Our incredible team of over 150 volunteer mentors supports over 150 mentees, providing critical peer support with the help of a small, dedicated staff. But we can only keep these transformational projects operational through fundraising endeavours like Zac's. Watching Zac grow in confidence, develop his sense of self, and share his passions during his mentoring journey is inspiring. His appreciation for the space, time, and kindness he found in his mentor is humbling. We are delighted to be a part of Zac's journey
Unfortunately, Janet Harwood could not be present on the day, but Zac and his family made a VERY long journey to surprise Janet on her doorstep with a cheque.
Zac’s donation will make a huge difference to us and will enable us to continue supporting people with CVI with direct support, advocacy and training. The CVI Society is run entirely by volunteers so any funds donated go directly to supporting people like Zac
Congratulations to Zac and to everyone involved in the challenge. Zac is an inspiration to his school community and we hope that he inspires others to raise much needed funds for charities.
