And we're off again! This is our 3rd year of doing a fundraiser for Basis - this year we are swimming (400m in a lake), cycling (15 miles) and running (4k)  at Castle Howard (Brideshead).  While Amber's been inspired by her work at the charity, Caz was inspired by our Chair Kate Brown many years ago. After a few long open water swims, she has now agreed to sign up to something that includes something she loathes: running and something that terrifies her: cycling. So far, our cycling training has been really hard work for both of us - we've been told to train for hills (and even at our lowest gears these have been a challenge) and most running will be on a hilly trail (as opposed to a road!) which although not a long distance will be a real challenge after having spent 2 hours in the water and on the bike!

We're dedicating all this free time as we know the charity needs our help and we hope you will make all this trainng worthwhile. Please give what you can - even if its just the price of yr morning coffee for 1 day - that can pay for 25 cups of hot chocolate - roughly a weeks worth on outreach or 5 safety alarms. We've set ourselves a high target - we hope you can help us smash it! 

While the charity has had some amazing successes, we've also been suffering from funding cuts like any other charity, while the demand continues to grow.

Our young peoples team in Leeds and N. Yorkshire have young people on the waiting list who are either being exploited or highly likely to be as does our historic CSE service - adult women struggling to  cope with the impact of historic abuse with nowhere to go for specialist support who will understand what they are going through and how to help. Only last week, we had 2 cases of severe sexual assault among our sexwork project service users who our team are currently working to access services and secure prosecution. 

While awareness is growing of sexual exploitation of children and more support is available , youngpeople are often still blamed for the abuse, facing prejudice based on gender or class by the general public and professionals -  which stops them from coming forward, blaming themselves, as others do. Stigma and prejudice against sexwork is also what stops sexworkers from coming forward to seek help for sexual health issues or crimes against them. 

Please give what you can - even if its just the price of yr morning coffee for 1 day - that can pay for 25 cups of hot chocolate - roughly a weeks worth on outreach or 5 safety alarms. We've set ourselves a high target - we hope you can help us smash it!