Press Release
3rd April 2009
Motor racing champion gets set to raise funds for United Response
Crispian Besley, from Northamptonshire, is using his participation in historic motor racing as a novel way of raising funds and promoting awareness of the national learning disability charity United Response.
Providing everything from 24-hour care to a few hours of support a week, United Response is a community based charity working with people across England and Wales.
The charity has a special significance to Crispian as they provided support for his younger brother, Dominic, for the last 15 years.
Crispian said:
"Dominic was born with Down's Syndrome and sadly died earlier this year at the age of 48 but his years in United Response’s care were some of the happiest of his life."
"I want to use my passion for motor racing to tell others about United Response’s work and to make it possible for more people with learning disabilities to live life to the full."
Crispian, a winner of the Front engine class of the Historic Formula Junior Championship 2008, is asking people to pledge money based on the points that he scores in this year’s championship, with a prize for the donor who correctly guesses the points and his final position. Crispian won the Front Engined class last year and over the last 7 years has scored an average of 43 points.
Crispian's two FJ racing cars will also be sporting United Response’s name and logos over the course of the racing season which starts at Mallory Park on Sunday April 5th.
To read more about Crispian’s fundraising efforts and to support him go to www.justgiving.com/crispianbesley
Ends
For more information please contact Sarah Bartlett or Jaime Gill in the United Response Press Office on020 8246 5237/ 020 8246 5122 or emailsarah.bartlett@unitedresponse.org.uk or jaime.gill@unitedresponse.org.uk
Note to editors
United Response is a top 100 charity operating in England and Wales, providing a range of support and services for more than 1,500 people with learning disabilities, mental health needs or physical disabilities. We employ over 2,000 people across the organisation and have won many awards for our pioneering work since being founded in 1973.
Our mission is to enable people with learning disabilities, mental health needs and physical disabilities to take control of their lives.
Our vision is a society where disabled people are equal participants and have access to the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.
The services we provide depend on each person we work with. We can provide 24-hour support for people with profound physical needs, or just a few hours for those who need less support to live their lives. We can job coach someone into meaningful paid employment. We can provide outreach support for someone with a mental health need or help people who find it difficult to communicate by making information more accessible. The key to our success is that we work with each person to do the things they want to do, supporting them to communicate what they want and tell us how we are doing.
In support of our vision, we also campaign to improve the lives of people with disabilities in society. This may mean lobbying decision makers such as MPs to ensure that people’s voices are heard or it might mean working directly with disabled people so that they can be more directly engaged in the democratic process. We also work with employers to ensure that more people with learning disabilities, mental health needs and physical disabilities get a fair opportunity to work.
In 2008 alone, we were shortlisted as best employer in the Third Sector Excellence Awards and highly commended for our Annual Report. We also won a highly prestigious National Training Award for the investment we make in our staff. To find out more please visit www.unitedresponse.org.uk.