The Arena 80 charity Vote

We’re donating £1,200 from the profits of the 2023 and 2024 Hove Prom 10K to a charity selected by Arena members. Take a moment to review the shortlisted charities and cast your vote using the process outlined below.

Voting closes on May 31st and the winning charity will be announced in the Newsletter shortly afterwards.

Martlets Hospice

A local charity providing essential care to people affected by terminal illness in Brighton and Hove, and surrounding areas. Their expert teams provide the very best care and support, helping patients and their loved ones to live life to the full during the precious time they have together.
https://www.martlets.org.uk/

I (Jonathan Pickworth) nominate Martlets as the charity for the club to support at this year’s Hove Prom 10k. Martlets is a local charity providing hospice care for local residents at or near end of life. I have prepared this nomination jointly with fellow Arena runner Fabio Gerini. 

It is difficult to explain how a terminally ill person feels when there is no further healing treatment available.  Exhaustion, a sense of emptiness and resignation, and a gradual loss of control over your own body, come with pain and many other degrading changes.  It is in this situation, when all hope feels lost, that Martlets and its nurses and doctors can help.  Not only do Martlets provide palliative care at its hospice site in Hove, but it also offers “hospice at home” care for those who prefer, in their time of need, to remain at home in familiar surroundings and with their family. Martlets provides not only superb medical and nursing support for patients, but also practical help for patients and their family carers.  Martlets provided great care for our former club member Rachel Burgess last year, and in doing so provided immense support for her husband and carer, Fabio. Its wonderful community support team currently provides a similar fantastic service for my own wife Maria, and has been a huge support to me in this process.  I am sure that other club members will have family or friends who have also been assisted by Martlets.  Martlets is the only hospice provider in Brighton & Hove, and relies on the community to fund most of its vital services.  It would be a worthy beneficiary of the club’s charitable donation. Please vote in support of Martlets as Arena’s nominated charity for this year.

TogetherCo

TogetherCo connect people, places and ideas to create a society that everyone can be part of. They think human connection is powerful. We help people make connections through our befriending, social prescribing and volunteering services in Brighton, Hove and beyond.

https://togetherco.org.uk/

I’d like to nominate TogetherCo, a Brighton-based befriending charity that tackles loneliness in the city. 

By simply connecting with people who are isolated in our community, volunteers can make a real difference to people’s lives. In a city of nearly 300,000, no-one should be lonely or socially isolated.

https://togetherco.org.uk/what-we-do

Pedal People

Piloted cycle rides for local elders and people living with disability or health challenges.
Passengers travel 5-25Km around their city through green spaces and by the sea. Participants spirits visibly lift. For over 80% of participants it is their ONLY outdoor activity.
https://www.pedalpeople.org.uk/

Nomination 1

I would like to nominate the local charity, Pedal People, based at Black Rock, to
be the charity partner for Arena 80 for the second year running. I feel that Arena
has a close connection with Pedal People as several Arena members are either
volunteer pilots (cyclists) for its “Elder Care Ride service” – where participants
are collected from local care homes and taken for rides in brightly coloured
trishaws, or users of the “All ages ride Service” – using a wide range of
accessible bikes with family members who have a disability. Pedal People
transforms the lives of these local people who have limited or no access to
outdoor activity by enabling them to experience the exhilaration of Brighton’s
wonderful seafront. Pedal People was awarded the Kings Award for Voluntary
Service (the MBE for volunteer groups) in 2024. As a very small charity (just 2
full-time equivalent staff and 44 volunteers), it really punches above its weight
by providing 4000 rides a year on an incredibly lean budget that relies entirely
on donations and fundraising, and without the luxury of a staff member to
support fundraising activity. The team at Pedal People were “over the moon” to
be Arena 80s chosen charity last year, and would be even more delighted to be
chosen again.

You can pick one, two or three charities. Please put them in order of preference, with your favourite charity first.

Only select a charity once (multiple selections for the same charity will be ignored). Three points are allocated to the first choice, two points to the second and one point to the third.

Please note – you do not have to vote for more than one charity. The charity donation will go to the charity that gets most points.