In the summer of 2000, some months before the start of the Vendee Globe Round the World race, Ellen MacArthur went sailing in France with a group of children with cancer and leukaemia.  The trip was organised by a French charity called A Chacun son Cap loosely translated as everyone has a goal.  After this Ellen described this as one of the best days sailing she had ever had.  “We laughed so much we had tears in our eyes and the kids were just incredible.”  Having seen first hand what a great time the kids had sailing with A Chacun son Cap, and after also working with Sargent Cancer Care, Ellen began to investigate the possibility of starting something similar in the UK. The Ellen MacArthur Trust became a registered charity (no. 1096491) in late 2002, and was officially launched by Ellen on 2nd January 2003. In Ellen’s words:

“These are really special kids. In many ways they are just they same as everyone else, they are interested in the same things as kids their age, they have the same goals in life, but the difference is that they do this with a huge challenge ahead of them.

I face challenges out on the water, but these are challenges that I choose to do. They, on the other hand, don’t have this luxury. They battle against something harder than many of us could ever imagine and they do it with the biggest smiles on their faces. To me they are truly inspirational and if the EMT can help them in their battle in any way then that is a fantastic achievement.”

Initially run on a voluntary basis with just one part time staff member, the charity relied heavily, as it still does today, on the help, skill and enthusiasm of its volunteers to organise and crew the trips.  With Martin Noyle as Trust Manager overseeing things, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) signed up for the first trip in 2003.  This inaugural Trust trip sailed out from Cowes on 20 July 2003, with five young people from GOSH in recovery from cancer and leukaemia on board.  The following week a group from Southampton General Hospital arrived.

In 2004 as more hospitals were recruited, the trips increased, with one or two yachts on each, welcoming young people not only from Great Ormond Street and Southampton General Hospital, but also the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children (NICFC) and University College London Hospitals (UCLH).  The formula for these trips was now tried, tested and working well, and at the end of 2004, aware that the effects childhood and teenage cancer have on young people can reach far beyond the end of their treatment, it was decided we would try and build more beneficial long term relationships by continuing to work with the young people, providing support until they reached 18 or remission date. The Trust also began to receive support from the sailing fraternity and was one of the charities to benefit from the building industry’s regatta the Little Britain Challenge Cup (LBCC) which has supported us ever since.

The first step towards our long-term strategy to build relationships with the young people was in 2005, when we were named one of the official charities of the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race.  With free entry into the race it seemed ideal to invite a crew of young people who had sailed with us before back to experience this amazing spectacle and further their sailing experiences.  The race gave us a great opportunity to increase our profile and establish ourselves as a charity that fellow sailors in the race could really connect with and support.  This Trust crewed boat was a huge step forward in attaining our goal to provide continuity and support in the years after treatment, and we have continued to invite young people back to this popular race ever since.  We also worked with Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham for the first time on our summer trips.  As the charity grew, the need for a full time manager was recognised and Frank Fletcher, who had been involved with the Trust as a volunteer since the beginning, was appointed in November 2005.

In 2006 the trips expanded once again and CLIC Sargent Bristol was added to the groups that benefited from the sailing trips.  This year three young people from NICFC were selected, through the Trust’s association with UKSA, to participate on a Leg of the historic Gipsy Moth IV voyage, and flew to Panama to begin their journey of a lifetime to the Galapagos.  We also began our association with the late and greatly missed Gordon Applebey, an incredible man who had himself spent time in hospital with cancer, and wanted to contribute to the work the Trust was doing.  Consequently Gordon donated his yacht, Scarlet Oyster to the Trust for the summer and became heavily involved in the trips until his passing in Feb 2008.  You can read a tribute to Gordon Applebey here.

The Trust was also named as official charity to Skandia Cowes Week 2006-2008, again providing a huge boost to our profile and establishing us as a sailing charity here to stay.  This also gave us another opportunity to invite the young people back to sail and we entered a Trust boat into this regatta for the first time, with 8 young people racing during the week. As part of this tenure we also hosted a fundraising Ball, which has grown each year, raising lots of money for the Trust, and providing invaluable exposure and support from those learning about the Trust both at this event, and through our stand on Cowes Parade.  Our tenure ended in 2008 but Skandia continued their support in 2009 with the Ellen MacArthur Trust Skandia Round Britain voyage.  Find out more about this project at www.roundbritain.org

In 2007, due to the raised profile and boost to fundraising as a direct result of our involvement in Skandia Cowes Week, JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race and the LBCC we saw our biggest growth so far, not only working with new hospitals and groups from The Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge,  Birmingham Childrens Hospital, CLIC Sargent Cardiff and CLIC Sargent Scotland, but also pioneering a residential dinghy week at Bradwell on Sea in Essex.  This week would allow us to invite a large group of young people to start sailing from the beginning, in smaller more responsive boats, working towards a qualification, and trying new things such as canoeing and archery.  On top of this we were also racing in Skandia Cowes Week and the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race once again, with both cyclists and walkers circumnavigating the Island by land raising money for the Trust.  All these activities strengthened our aim to continue building relationships with the young people and started to form our ‘return to sail’ programme.  The eventual goal being that every summer trip would have an adult volunteer who had originally sailed with us after treatment, providing positive role models for those joining us for the first time.  This year saw the Trust support one such young person, Dan Monk, (who first sailed with the Trust aged 17 in 2004) through his Yachtmasters qualification and were proud to oversee him skipper his own Trust trip. There was a very positive reaction on this trip from those just out of treatment, that one of the skipper’s had been in the same position as them just a few years before.  This was very inspiring for some of them and all at the Trust, and we could see we were heading in the right direction.  Also in 2007, three young people from QMC Nottingham were selected for the Gipsy Moth IV leg in Crete, where they spent five days sailing round the Mediterranean Sea.

2008 saw continued growth, with an increase in summer trips and working with new hospitals in Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.  Our Bradwell residential dinghy week increased to two weeks due to popular demand.  The ‘return to sail’ programme proved successful with 8 young people who had sailed with us after treatment returning as volunteers on the trips.  Our final year as official charity of Cowes Week saw our fundraising Ball move to the grand location of Osborne House, the former home of Queen Victoria where guests enjoyed champagne on the terraces and an aerial display by the Red Devils Parachute Display Team.  We also announced a project that was to be the realisation of a dream for many at the Trust, the 2009 Ellen MacArthur Trust Skandia Round Britain voyage.  At the end of 2008 the Trust were donated their first yacht from the Poole Sail Training Trust, another sailing charity that was wrapping up its operations after 22 years. (for more about this yacht click here)

2009 saw our Ellen MacArthur Trust Skandia Round Britain voyage set sail in May, with one of the young people who sailed on the very first trip in 2003 participating, a testament to our long term commitment to our young people.  Round Britain ran in conjunction with more summer trips where we welcomed young people from four new hospitals; Liverpool, Cornwall, Leicester and Oxford.  Building on our ‘return to sail’ programme, for the first time we ran a graduate training week, with several young people working towards their competent crew qualification and returning as volunteer mates on the yachts in the summer. We had two boats racing in the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race and hosted one residential dinghy week at Bradwell on Sea where two of the volunteers were adults who had originally sailed with us after treatment for cancer and leukaemia.  Although no longer the official charity of Cowes Week, we became the official charity of the West Wight Triathlon, and managed the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race Cycle Challenge with around 105 cyclists racing against the yachts.  We received continued support from Skandia, JPMorgan Asset Management and LBCC as well as many other corporate and individual fundraisers.

The Trust has moved forward greatly from its two boat trip beginnings in 2003.  In 2010 we will run 25 summer trips, working with young people from Newcastle for the first time, as well as entering at least four yachts in the JPMorgan Round the Island Race, and spending two weeks at Bradwell.  Due to the success of our Round Britain voyage, we will also be offering longer cruising as part of our Return to Sail Programme, with several yachts sailing wherever the wind and time allow over six days.  We will be running a week of training for those over 18 who want to return as volunteers with ten people signed up so far, and for the first time will pilot a four-day trip for the 18-24 age group in recovery from cancer or leukaemia, a group we have been wanting to work with for a while now. 

All this new activity, as well as our old favourites, will make 2010 another very exciting year for the Trust!  Thanks to everyone who has helped us get this far, and we hope you continue to follow and support our activities in the future.