To celebrate the announcement of this new partnership and their 75^th Anniversary year, St Loye’s gave away 75 commemorative balloons to children in Princesshay on Friday 17^th February as well as talked to shoppers about the charity’s milestone 75^th Anniversary this year.

 Wayne Pearce, Princesshay Centre Director said, “We’re very proud to be supporting St Loye’s as our charity of the year and hope to help fundraise through collaborative events throughout 2012. This is an exciting year for the charity and we are delighted to be part of it.”

Throughout the year Princesshay will be working in partnership with St Loye’s on exciting events such as a Jubilee Cream Tea party in Princesshay on Friday 1^st June and the Olympic Torch Relay which comes to Exeter on Sunday 20^th May.  At the Jubilee Cream Tea party St Loye’s will be providing opportunities to meet their GB Paralympian Ambassadors as well as inviting people to join in a range of outdoor fun activities in the centre.

Christopher Knee, St Loye’s Chief Executive said, “We’re so pleased to be Princesshay’s charity of the year and look forward to working with the team on unique events. It is a happy coincidence that 2012 sees us celebrate our 75th Anniversary as our Patron Her Majesty The Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee.  We will be hosting a significant fund-raising Jubilee Cream Tea in Princesshay on June 1^st 2012 to celebrate both occasions and we’re asking people everywhere to hold their own cream teas and coffee mornings in support of us.”

Christopher Knee concluded, “This is an important year for St Loye’s enabling us to promote disability awareness to a much wider audience and on a much larger scale. It will help us further raise the profile of St Loye’s locally, including what we do, how we do it, and the difference we make to people with disabilities or health conditions, both locally and nationally.”

On Sunday 4th September, we had 10 jumpers in total including volunteers and staff members. One of which was St Loyes’ own Catering Verifier & Support Worker Keith Lowe (pictured right).

On Friday 23rd September, we were part of a record-breaking attempt by the organisers, Skydive UK Ltd, who aimed to get 100 jumpers to better the record for most tandem skydivers in one day. Several members of staff and volunteers jumped for St Loye’s, including Concierge Russell Powell. Watch Anna-Marie Waite interview Russ after his dive below.

St Loye’s is planning a major Skydive event for June 22nd next year as part of its 75th anniversary celebrations. Check back for more information coming soon!

Paralympic swimmers Kate Grey and David Hill, on this occasion without teammate Liz Johnson, chatted and signed autographs with staff members and the public, alongside several St Loye’s staff.

The visit was part of the ongoing relationship between St Loye’s Foundation and the Team Bath swimmers in the build-up to London 2012, which coincides with the Foundation’s 75^th anniversary. Already the trio have attended several events with St Loye’s including the AGM and the South West Disability Show, where they manned the stand with staff.

St Loye’s Foundation and Sainsbury’s came together through their mutual passion for the Paralympics, with the supermarket chain’s sponsorship of the London 2012 games and St Loye’s having Kate, David and Liz on board.

Look out for more events and activities from St Loye’s with our Paralympic ambassadors soon!

To find out how you can skydive for FREE, click here

He started a course training to be a draftsman in ’63, but being paralysed on one side meant John could not hold the rulers steady with one hand so he switched to a woodworking course.

He said: “I was making joints better with one hand than those with two hands.”  Nevertheless, because opportunities were not quite so equal in those days, he was advised that his disability would make it unlikely he would get past the interview stage and secure a job in the trade.

Undaunted, John took a bookkeeping course, passed a number of exams and worked for the next 28 years as a bookkeeper before redundancy led him back to St Loye’s in 1993.  This time, he took a computer skills course and passed enough exams to land a job with the Devon & Cornwall Police where he worked for the next 15 years before his retirement.

In June, one of our Friends Groups – Stratton & District – held a very successful Open Gardens and Cream Tea event in aid of the Foundation, raising a fantastic £280! The next event from the Stratton Group will be a Coffee Morning on October 29th in Bude which you can find out more about by clicking the link.

Back in August, our volunteer Anna-Marie Waite was busy again as she hosted ‘Candlelight Acoustic’, a relaxed evening with performances from some great local talent. Over 100 people attended and the event raised an incredible £700 for the Foundation!

There are plenty more events coming up on the St Loye’s calendar, with lots to get involved with! See our Events page for details.

Thank you to all our supporters who continue to do tremendous work and help us achieve our ambitions by training and helping people with disabilities and health conditions to find work! If you are interested in holding an event or raising money for St Loye’s, please call 01392 255428 and ask for the Fundraising team, or send an email to fundraising@stloyes.ac.uk

You’ll be in very safe hands with Skydive UK Ltd as their highly experienced tandem instructors have a combined total of over 26,000 jumps – take a look at their amazing video here

*Jump for FREE – if you raise a minimum of £395 the cost of your jump (£230 Fridays or Bank Holidays or £250 weekends) will be deducted leaving a balance of at least £145 for St Loye’s so you’ll be helping a worthy cause too.

If you’re part of a business, why not use this as a staff team building day?

Our main event will be on Friday 22nd June or you can choose a date to suit you.

So do something really amazing in 2012 and help us celebrate our 75^th Anniversary.

Click here for full details and booking infomation, e-mail fundraising@stloyes.ac.uk or call me on 01392 255428.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Phil Roberts

Community Fundraiser

]]> http://www.stloyesfoundation.org.uk/whats-on/skydive-2012/feed 0 http://www.stloyesfoundation.org.uk/success-stories/davids-story http://www.stloyesfoundation.org.uk/success-stories/davids-story#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:32:33 +0000 admin http://www.stloyesfoundation.org.uk/?p=2106 David came to St Loye’s Foundation plagued with self-doubt after losing his voice to Vocal Chord Dysphonia.  It meant he could no longer continue in his previous profession as International Head of Marketing and needed to start afresh. 

After realising that he needed to find a new career, David looked to what he was good at and decided on St Loyes’ PC Support and Repair course. “I’d had over 20 years of experience with using computers, so that was a good choice for the best chance of success and the least risk.” 

The style of St Loye’s also suited David perfectly.  “Sometimes distance learning and doing things remotely isn’t ideal.  I needed a practical, hands-on experience not just to learn, but to become genuinely capable for the workplace,” he said.  “There are only a few institutions in the country which offer this. St Loye’s was an excellent choice because it offers a full wrap-around support service.”

After successfully completing the course, David was full of praise for the Foundation and how it has affected him as a person.  “It’s been a life-changing experience. It’s not just study – you are encouraged to have a complete culture change and embrace a ‘can-do’ attitude.  You’re transformed from what you were into a much more employable person. They come to you and fix you – I liken them to International Rescue from Thunderbirds!” You could say that after his St Loye’s experience, David is feeling F.A.B!

Following this ‘transformative’ period at St Loye’s, David has been pleased that there is now some evidence of his voice slowly recovering.  But even if it is not quite the same, he is now completely confident in his approach to find work, getting his life back and moving on!