The emails below show why we are very happy to support Wetwheels Yorkshire.
Hi Karl
I can’t thank you and your team enough for, once again, supporting our visit and extending such a warm welcome to myself and the motley crew of volunteers. Every single one of our trips ran as scheduled thanks to some great weather, and some ‘manageable’ weather. After last years’ storm I can admit to being very relieved.
A letter from the wife of Edmond, who was at the helm from his wheelchair, is below and demonstrates what a trip on the water, made possible by your generosity, can achieve.
Pete and team. Wetwheels Yorkshire
“Good Morning Peter.
There aren’t really words to express the profound impact you and the WetWheels team has had on Edmond this week.
Edmond left school without any qualifications, but somehow managed to start his own business designing aircraft seats. He travelled the world. At one stage commuting daily to Moscow. After many years of hard work his business took off, and he became one of the leading seat designers in the country. He bought himself a boat, and went out fishing at every opportunity, mostly around the South Coast. He said being out on the water “reset his brain”. We were living in London, but had family in the North East. He’d often trailer his boat 360 miles up the A1 on a Friday evening for a day’s fishing at Seahouses, then back again on Sundays.
In 2016 a particularly good piece of work came through. Edmond phoned me from Seahouses and said that he was putting a deposit on a house – with a driveway big enough to leave the boat there. When I asked how many bedrooms it had he didn’t know… but the driveway was big enough.
On a beautiful, freezing cold, Northumberland morning in December 2017 Edmond suffered a catastrophic brain haemorrhage while walking on the beach at Newton by the sea. He was taken by Air Ambulance to the RVI hospital, where we were told that he would not survive. He remained in hospital for almost a year. I would take him pictures of his boat and assure him that he would come home to see it again. And he did.
Over the past years we have spent a lot of time in Seahouses harbour, watching the boats head out, but we have never really seen a way for Edmond, and his wheelchair, to get back out to sea.
Quite by chance I saw a YouTube video about the WetWheels organisation. And noticed that you were coming to Seahouses.
Our trip out on Wednesday relit a fire in Edmond. And to be out again yesterday, in different circumstances, was like reopening a door in Edmonds life, that has been closed for a long time.
We cannot thank you and your team enough for the incredible work you do. We are truly immeasurably grateful to you, the team and the WetWheels charity.
We will indeed look at the upcoming fishing trip too.
With Sincerest Thanks
Lorraine, Edmond and family.”