My challenge as Waverley's Mayor

As you might expect, being a ‘virtual’ Mayor has been a very strange experience and very far from what I might have expected in more usual times.

Since my year began last June 2020 until it’s end in May this year, we will have been in one stage or another of restrictions - going from what seems now like relative freedom in the summer to periods of total lockdown. So the normal work of being a mayor has mostly involved ‘Zooming’ here and there.

One of the big downsides has been that I have not been able to visit all the wonderful charities here in Waverley and the fantastic volunteers that staff them. They so freely give their time to help us improve our lives in so many different ways.

It is the custom for the Mayor to support some of these charities and this year it is so much more difficult to choose one charity over another as they are all in need of help, support and funding. However, with difficulty I have chosen three charities which all involve families and young people in some way.

I can see that young families and young people are going to be very affected by this pandemic and even more by its aftermath, so all of these charities are at the forefront of local help in Waverley. The first is Waverley Home Start which uses local trained volunteers to provide help and support to young families. The second is Farnham and District Sea Cadets which helps boys, girls, young men and young women to develop themselves and their interests. The third is 40 Degreez, a children and youth project in the centre of Farnham which provides a safe space for mothers with young children, school children and young adults of all ages, who need rest and respite in their lives.

I hope you can support me in supporting them in completing my challenge of the three tons, 100 +100 + 100. I am of an age where I don’t really like to look at the numbers anymore but I can walk and swim, so my aim is to walk 100 miles and swim 100 lengths before the end of my mayoral year. The other 100 is much more challenging for me as I have got to my ripe old age (75) without learning to ride a bike! So in the interest of the environment, I will learn to ride a bike and ride 100 yds without putting my feet down. Believe me when I say that this may require the addition of a wheel or two to a normal bike to complete but I will persevere!

Please give all you can to these three charities as they are very worthy recipients and will be thankful of anything that you can give.

To keep up to date with how my challenge is going you can follow my blog which I aim to update weekly by clicking here - My 100+100+100 challenge blog.

This is me putting my best foot forward in the beautiful North Farnham Fields...

The Challenge is on! (update: 14.04.21)

Thanks to the relaxation in restrictions, I have had to modify the time frame of my 100+100+100 challenge…

In its wisdom the Government has decided that councils cannot hold their formal councillor meetings remotely after 6 May and as such this has meant that the new Mayor will now be elected on 27 April which has given me a month less to learn how to ride a bike!

So now the challenge is on and even more strenuous than before in that I need to walk 100 miles, swim 100 lengths and cycle 100 km on a static bike (again having done 0 km/cm on any type of bike previously) before the end of April.

Having tried out the ‘bike’ this afternoon in Farnham Sports Centre (now reopen), I can see I will have to develop some muscles or I won’t finish before Christmas let alone by 27 April. On the plus side I have now walked 99 miles - keeping the last mile to do alongside the last length and the last KM (on the bike) all on the same day and hopefully whilst I am still Mayor.

I will still endeavor to learn how to ride a bike and do a mobile bonus of a 100 metres as a ‘virtual past Mayor’ in the last month before I should have handed over the chain (25 May) and will continue to fundraise until 31 May for my three fantastic charities.

Wish me luck! To keep updated with my progress don't forget to follow my blog by clicking here - My 100+100+100 challenge blog.

The end is near (update: 22.04.21)

I am continuing to progress with my 100+100+100 challenge and I am getting very close to completing – having now walked 99.5 miles, cycled 75 km on a static bike and swum 90 lengths of a swimming pool. I am hoping that in this, the last week of my mayoralty, I will be able to finish all three ‘100’s’ by changeover day on 27 April. I will still of course continue to raise funds until the end of May (31) and learn to get mobile on a bike which may or may not end up having more than the usual two wheels!

I thought I might say a few words about the other two of my charities and why I have chosen Young People as my theme. We always think of the young as being resilient and seemingly unaffected by their circumstances but that is not always as it seems. I have personal experience of this in my own family, one of my young grandchildren, brought up in a loving family who have few money worries, is having panic attacks and having difficulty sleeping. Life for the young has suddenly become uncertain and things which seemed unvarying have changed. Life is suddenly full of questions: Will there be school tomorrow? Will I see my friends? Am I safe outside with this invisible killer virus?

Added to this for older ‘young people’ there are the questions such as: Will I be able to get a job? A place to live or a family of my own? If someone like my grandchild can feel so affected by this how much more difficult is it for those already in trying circumstances?

Every young person has been affected by the pandemic in some way and many people who like me, recognise the problem have not been able to help directly as we have been vulnerable, shielding and in lockdown. It has been a very frustrating time for us and I think that is why so many people have been doing everything they can to raise money for those charities who are able to do something to help. I have already spoken about Waverley Home Start which helps new parents but now I would like to describe my other two charities below.

These are two charities which help all young people who turn up at their doors - 40 Degreez Youth Centre and Farnham and District Sea Cadets. You can find out more about them by looking on their websites but here is a brief description of the wonderful work they do below.

The 40 Degreez Youth Centre in Farnham provides support and a safe space for young people who can need help in a direct way but also to those who are suffering from the uncertainties of our changing times. Those involved can range from young children finding difficulty moving from primary to secondary school, older teenagers who are the primary carers in the family to young mothers who need help with coping with young families of their own. They also continue to work with appropriate outside bodies in order to provide for the wide range of complex needs that some young people can have. The following are a few examples of what they have been involved in recently.

During the months of the pandemic, many of us have had difficulties and found this past year mentally draining but for some young people times have been catastrophic. In the past few months 40 Degreez have helped 4 young people who have lost a parent or sole parent. There is 1 young person who is pregnant but is in danger of losing her baby, there have been abuse disclosures with the social services being involved. Another of these young people has received respite care with the Space to Grow project and is also receiving bereavement counselling plus help towards becoming an independent young adult. The trustees are aware of the need for more clinical support outside of 40 Degreez and are working towards further partnerships with other bodies to enable continued support for young people in such dire circumstances.

This vital work is provided by qualified youth workers, health professionals and volunteers and these are all funded in these difficult times by leasing the building out for functions and by whatever grants they can find.

The Farnham and District Sea Cadets movement makes a huge difference to the young lives of those who join especially at this time. The discipline and confidence building activities can turn lives around and the following moving testimony by one such person shows this very powerfully.

“I joined sea cadets at 12 years of age. I was very shy and bullied at school, so self-confidence was so low. Then after walking through the door of Farnham Sea Cadets. I began to feel accepted in the Sea Cadet family very quickly. I continued to do well in competitions and moving through the ranks. Gaining more and more confidence as the years went on. I stepped away at 17 years old, to use the new confidence and values I had developed by being part of the Sea Cadets. I went and focused on my civilian career. Now a confident and driven individual. I managed to get a very good career that allowed me to then return to Sea Cadets as an Adult Volunteer. Within a month of joining, I was pegged to become the Unit Training Officer. This role is fundamental in the cadet experience and forms part of the units command team. After two years of doing this, I managed to completely change and improve the number of qualifications the cadets were able to receive. I then moved to the second in command as the executive officer, with the admission to one day become the Commanding Officer of the very unit I was a cadet at all those years ago. Two years later, I completed the Officer Development Programme and became a Royal Naval Reserve Sea Cadet Officer.

I am now super proud to be the Commanding Officer and have been in charge for nearly 4 years now. We have grown the unit from 50 to over 70 cadets in this time and I continue to be determined to give young people in Farnham, Fleet and Aldershot the amazing experience and life changing development that I once received by being a Sea Cadet.’

In their different way both of these charities have made and will continue to make a huge change to the lives of young people and it is this that keeps me going in my challenge when the going gets tough. Anything that you give will go to providing vital support to both of these wonderful and worthwhile charities and also Waverley Home Start and even more importantly to the young people that they serve.

To keep updated with my progress don't forget to follow my blog by clicking here - My 100+100+100 challenge blog.