Skipton Swimarathon names 2021 beneficiaries

The Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation (PPBF) and Citizen’s Advice Guernsey (CA) will be the joint beneficiaries of this year’s Skipton Swimarathon, as they look to promote greater awareness of their services. Both charities need additional funding to meet ongoing costs.

The Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation has been supporting Channel Island families for the past 18 years. Founded by racing driver, Andy Priaulx, and his wife Jo, following the premature births of both their children, the initial aim was to support local families with premature babies when they felt helpless and alone.

Roll on to 2021 and the PPBF now owns two apartments adjacent to Southampton Hospital, where they provide free accommodation for local families with premature babies and sick children seeking vital treatment. The Skipton Swimarathon’s aim is to support the full running costs of at least one of these for the next twelve months.

The Citizens Advice service has always been in demand by our local community but the additional problems created by the Covid pandemic has greatly increased the need. The breadth of the services they provide, free of charge, from fully trained advisors is admirable.

They desperately need funding to enable them to upgrade their IT system. It has become outdated over the 43 years of their existence and, during the recent lockdowns, the CA was only able to operate a minimal advisory service due to the outdated system. The hardware has been offered by a local I.T. provider, but there are ongoing support costs. The Swimarathon’s financial support will provide some of the funds to cover these.

Nick Guillemette, Chairman of the Skipton Swimarathon Committee, said: “This year the Skipton Swimarathon Organising Committee received 21 applications for various projects, all with their own merits, but the PPBF and CA’s pleas for urgent support to enable them to continue their proven and well-documented services touched the hearts of all of us.

“We hope that this year everyone will support the Swimarathon and get behind these projects. I’d like to think that for every pound that our swimmers raise, it could be helping another local family.”

Kerry Ciotti CEO of Citizens Advice said: “We are so thankful that the Skipton Swimarathon has chosen to support us. With a fully operational IT system in place we shall have the flexibility, capacity and resilience to continue to support islanders.”

Jo Priaulx, co-founder of the PPBF said: “"The PPBF is so very grateful to receive the kind support from this year's Skipton Swimarathon.

“The generosity truly will make a huge difference in helping us to continue to provide invaluable support to local families going through immensely difficult times."

The Skipton Swimarathon is jointly organised by the Lions and Round Table, and will take place between 29 September and 3 October, with registration opening to the public in June at: www.swimarathon.org

In addition to supporting the Skipton Swimarathon the Skipton Community Fund also provides support to smaller charitable projects across the Channel Islands: https://www.skiptoninternational.com/skipton-community-fund