From Dubai to John O’Groats

John Hadden, David Bligh Smith, Richard & Ben Morgan – all residents in Dubai – along with family and friends from the UK, Steve Green, Steve Smallwood & Johns brother Matthew who lives in Haslemere Surrey, are forming a peloton of seven riders taking on the famous Land’s End to John O’ Groats (LeJog) cycle route in the UK, starting on the 9th July.

A team of avid cyclists and charity fundraisers, the ‘Dubai Drafters’ are raising funds for The Haslemere Youth Hub in the UK.. A charitable organization that helps provide support to hundreds of families in the area especially Children with mental health challenges.

The Dubai Drafters

Sporting a brand-new blue cycling shirt for ‘Le JOG’, the team will tackle the famous Land's End to John o' Groats cycling route covering the whole length of Great Britain between the two extremities, in the southwest and northeast. The traditional distance by road is 1000 miles (1,600 km) and takes most cyclists up to 14 days; The team are aiming for 11 days of continuous cycling with an average daily ride of 150km

The Haslemere Youth Hub (UK registered charity 1182842)Charity

Located in Haslemere in Surrey, UK, The Haslemere Youth Hub is a charitable organisation that provides support and services to many Children’s mental health groups within the area.

Through Covid lockdowns and rising utility costs the charity has been hit hard and now predominantly relies on donations to facilitate these essential services to the children of the community and the wider area.

With family ties to the Drafter’s., The Haslemere Youth Hub is headed up by Karen & Nadeana (Matthews wife), who manage the building and Deeza who helps arrange all the activities and make sure there is plenty of variety in the Hub.

Nadeana’ s story

“For years, Karen and I had been using what is now the Haslemere Youth Hub building for our dance company and we saw so much potential to create a positive environment for young people, so we created the Hub.

The building houses four studios and four offices - in the studios we run classes from street dance, ariel silks, basketball, draca explorers, singing groups, mother and baby groups, football and many more. In the offices we hold many counselling sessions for groups like NHS, CAHMS, Surrey Children’s services, I’m All Ears, Catch 22, to name just a few.

It took over seven years to convince the local authority to hand over the lease to us and it was agreed it would be set up as a charity. Four trustees were appointed, and we run the entire operation, including the cafe that is in the centre of the building, allowing a place for parents and children to find support and enjoy a coffee – the hub of the Hub.

As part of the work of the Hub, we run monthly support groups for teens, teens parents, twins, mother’s meetings, and in these support groups we find speakers to donate their time to the cause; these could be doulas, breast feeding support, the police, drug support groups, social media safety and many others. We also run summer and holiday programs allow parents to come into the building and try activities with their children for small fee.

To cover our costs, each year we try to hold three fundraising events - a race night, a quiz night and a Children’s disco. But of course, Covid-19 has affected our ability to raise funds this way.

But our rent and utilities break us and without kind donations and grants it would be impossible to carry on running. The building is becoming dilapidated and that requires a lot of maintenance costs too as well as the repairs attached to our lease that we have to fulfil these annually. The bottom line is it’s a struggle, but thanks to our generous supporters, it makes it all worthwhile.”

https://www.thehaslemerehub.com/

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/5138727/charity-overview