Celebrating the Relaunch of the Starr Trust With Our Starrs!

On our Celebration Night this year, we enjoyed the company of some amazing young Starrs and their families who joined us to celebrate their achievements over the last couple of years. Guests including long term and new supporters alike, also heard about our exciting new journey as a charity from Founder and Chairman Rob Starr.

Rob said

"Our ultimate aim is to remove roadblocks that a young person may be facing, in order to help them succeed in life. We will help them achieve their goals, encourage independent thinking and fill them with self-belief. With the generous support of businesses and individuals, we can help even more young people overcome huge life challenges and thrive in whatever they put their minds to. We will now be supporting young people between 10-25 years old to further extend our impact".

Hosted at the Hilton Brighton Metropole, guests also welcomed to the stage some fantastic new Ambassadors; long term friend of the Trust and cycling events leader, Francia Dirand, alongside new friend and kind supporter of the charity, Marc Abraham OBE.

Also introduced to the stage was inspiring young Starr, Nathan and his mother Kim, who beamed as he talked about how being supported by the Starr Trust has had such a positive impact on his life and enabled him to continue his passion of playing wheelchair tennis both nationally and internationally.

Sadly, due to injuring his hips while playing the sport he loves, then learning that a specially adapted wheelchair would cost around £13,000, Nathan feared that his tennis journey and dream of making it to the Olympics looked insurmountable. In response to this news and to Nathan’s complete surprise, the Starr Trust Founder & Chairman Rob Starr, officially announced his pledge to raise all of the money needed, by taking on a unique year-long personal fundraising mission in 2022 – a ‘52 x 52 Triathlon Challenge’ – this means an Olympic Distance Triathlon every week of 2022!  

Read more here about Nathan’s journey with the Starr Trust here.

Although the celebration night is not traditionally a fundraising event, an auction lot kindly donated by Patron and Olympic Medallist Robin Cousins for a personal ice-skating lesson, along with other generous donations including one from local celebrity Jason Burrill, the night raised over £5000!

Thank you to all who came and supported and to the wonderful team at the Hilton Brighton Metropole for their fantastic hospitality.

‍