Rockinghorse Children’s Charity looks back on an extraordinary year

When 2020 began Rockinghorse had high hopes. They were aiming to fund between 40-50 projects worth a total of about £350,000. But then, along with the rest of the world, their plans changed.

But despite the challenges this year has brought, the team at Rockinghorse have carried on working throughout, trying to find that silver lining. And they really found it. From individuals to businesses, young to old, they have been overwhelmed by the support they have received this year.

Starting with the launch of their Rockinghorse Hero campaign in March and running through the amazing range of support from their fundraisers, there are lots of things to celebrate during 2020.

Rockinghorse Hero Campaign success

Within a few days of their office closing, the charity’s Rockinghorse Hero campaign was up and running across the local press and social media channels, letting their supporters know how important their continued support was going to be over the coming months.

And they didn’t let them down. The campaign helped them raise an astonishing £95,000 over the first few months of the lock-down, thanks to their amazing supporters.

Children supporting children

Amongst the many wonderful things that has come out of this year, one of the stands out has been the number of children who have put their time and energy into raising money for other young people in their community.

This included the young netball players who organised a shoot-a-thon over Zoom that raised £3,500, twelve-year-old Bella who ran 26km as part of the 2.6 Challenge in May raising nearly £2,000 and Molly aged 6 who set up her very own Etsy store with proceeds coming to Rockinghorse.

Charity Challenges

Along with their younger supporters, they also had lots of people getting out and fundraising by running, walking and cycling around their local areas.

In April there was the 2.6 Challenge, created by the London Marathon organisers to help charities raise some of the funds they were missing out on following the postponement of the event. Individuals, couples and families all got involved in doing a range of activity to raise money for Rockinghorse.

There was also the astonishing Craig Peters who undertook a 12-hour burpee marathon following the support his twins received from the Royal Alex. He managed to complete 4,470 burpees raising £1,500.

And then there were the only organised events that Rockinghorse were able to go ahead with – two abseils from the i360 on Brighton seafront. In total 43 heroes took the plunge, raising a total of over £24,000 by dropping the 450ft to the ground from the raised pod.

Individual support

The charities’ supporters also used their individual skills to help during the year. Supporters like Matt Culli, a father of two from Henfield, who runs his own YouTube channel where he organises different giveaways and competitions raising funds for Rockinghorse.

Matt was inspired to help after his youngest son Logan was born two months premature and cared for at the Trevor Mann Baby Unit. After the help his family got, he wanted to give something back so along with his regular YouTube posts he has completed two 24-hour live stream gaming events so far this year, with another planned, and has raised £3,500 so far.

What’s been achieved this year

Despite losing around £250k of income since March, their priority has always been to provide equipment and services to the children and families that need it most.

Thanks to their amazing supporters, they have still been able to fund a wide range of services and equipment, including some directly related to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic such as individual paediatric stethoscopes, parent camp beds and a portable lung function machine.

But they also knew it was important to continue funding their ongoing projects like the oncology psychologist to support young cancer patients, the hippotherapy project at Chailey Heritage Foundation and their activity programme at Chailey Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit.

Ryan Heal, Rockinghorse CEO, is taking a lot of positives from 2020: “If we had known how the year was going to pan out in January, I think we all would have been terrified about how such a small charity would cope. But not only am I incredibly proud of the team for working through these exceptional circumstances but I am absolutely blown away but our supporters.

“Despite our worries, they haven’t forgotten about us and at every turn they’ve been there to help. So, we want to say thank you to each and every one of them that have run, walked, jumped, baked, gamed, drawn, sold or cycled. We wouldn’t be here without you.”

If you have a brilliant idea to raise some funds, just ‘Remember Rockinghorse’!

You can find out more about us and ways to raise money on the Rockinghorse website at: www.rockinghorse.org.uk or to speak to the charity about how they can support your ideas, call: 01273 330044 or email them at: enquiries@rockinghorse.org.uk