I'm rowing 'the river marathon' for Kids Matter because I get to talk to people running our parenting programmes across the UK every week, and every week I hear that families are growing stronger and countless kids are feeling the impact!

Kids Matter exists because parenting is hard, and exponentially more so for parents and carers who are facing disadvantages. Poverty and low income has an impact on parents’ ability to manage stressful situations and can make strong parent-child relationships difficult, thus affecting child wellbeing. Research tells us that the most effective early intervention is group-based parenting programmes. Our community-based parenting programmes are accessible to families in lower income brackets.

The actual route of The Great River Race is special for us as Richmond is where Kids Matter was founded and Millwall is where our first and longest standing partnership is!

Our total fundraising target for this event is £12,940. You might think why such a specific total? Well, the cost of reaching each child is £647, and this total will allow us to reach 20 children. This is a small cost to pay in order to give a child a better chance at life, especially when you consider the cost of late intervention.