Fundraisers’ escape plan for couple of good causes
AN INTREPID pair of fundraisers are planning a trip in wheelchairs from Skelmersdale to Penzance in 24 hours to raise money for good causes.
Carl Eaton, of Up Holland, who has spina bifida and is also a right leg amputee, is planning to make his way from Skelmersdale police station to Penzance with his friend, Peter Walsh, a taxi driver from Skelmersdale.
The adventurous pair, both 60 this year, are planning to make the long haul from Skelmersdale police station on June 18 to Penzance in wheelchairs as part of a huge fundraising effort.
Their incredible challenge is aimed at raising much needed funds for the Skem Menaces Football Club, a successful football club for adults with learning disabilities which Carl manages, and a kind hearted local group called Carousel, a West Lancashire organisation which uses music, movement and group singing activities to enable people to connect socially and improve mental and physical wellbeing.
Set up in 2021, Carousel Music & Movement Community Interest Community brightens lives through music and movement and helps people improve their health and wellbeing, with sessions aimed at people feeling isolated, those with mental health conditions, the elderly and adults with learning needs.
Carl, a dad of two and doting granddad of two-and-a-half-year-old Harriet, manages the Skem Menaces football club for adults with varying degrees of disability, which is renowned nationwide.
He said: “We are a football club for adult males with varying degrees of disability; we’re the most highly decorated disabled football club in the country – we’ve been to Buckingham Palace.
“Every year I come up with new events, or something where we can raise funds, and I do silly things like jumping off buildings, and last year, I did the Tough Mudder challenge.
“I was talking with a friend and I came up with the idea of the ‘escape from Skem.’
“So basically, the whole purpose of what we’re going to do is that Skem police station, on Saturday morning, June 18, is going to lock us up in jail, and we are going to be wearing these silly escaped convict uniforms.
“We are going to have literally no money, no food, no water, even the credit card details are going to be removed from our phones.
“The whole idea is that we escape from Skelmersdale and we have to get to Penzance in 24 hours. We have literally got to do it by word of mouth, that’s what we’ve got to do.
“I’m in a wheelchair, and Peter, who’s able bodied, is also going to be doing it in a wheelchair to raise awareness of disability and what it’s like to be in a wheelchair.
“The whole idea is that we break out of Skem with no money, no food and no water, and see if we can get to Lands End or possibly even further.”
The pair will also have to find their way back home from Penzance once the challenge is over under their own steam.
Carl added: “It’s not as if we can hitch hike, because we’ve got two big wheelchairs, and we’re just going to have to scrounge for drinks and food and trains, whatever we can get on.
“If we get to Land’s End and Penzance in reasonably good time, we might even jump on a boat and head off to Jersey while we’re at it.
“We will have our phones so that we can do hourly vlogs on Facebook where people will be able to donate, there’s a website up and running and it’s raised about £900 so people will be able to donate.
“I’m not at all nervous – I haven’t got a nervous bone in my body. I’m 60 this year, my mate is as well, and we’re knocking on a bit, but it’s going to be good fun.
“We’re not just doing it to raise money for the Skem Menaces, we’re also doing it for Carousel, which provides dance and music and movement for people with additional needs, and mental health issues.
“They’re struggling as well, with what’s happened through Covid, as any sort of fundraising has come to a standstill, so organisations like us need the pennies.
“One of the biggest reasons I do what I do when I do all these silly things is that it’s massively important to me that I give back to the community, as the community has given to our club.
“If it wasn’t for the community of Skelmersdale, I don’t think the club would be where they are today.
“There are 60 men in that club and if it hadn’t have been for the community of Skelmersdale over the years who really took to their hearts, I don’t think we would be where we are, so it’s massively important that we give back to that community because you will never find a more generous community.”
Caroline Darbyshire, director of Carousel, which runs services across West Lancashire, said: “We providing music and movement sessions for mental health and the elderly and anybody to brighten people’s lives because music is such great therapy.
“Carl is wonderful; he’s doing this challenge to Land’s End and raising money for Carousel to help us expand into the community to do more work.”