June - BackUp

BackUp was founded in 1986 by the former British and European Freestyle Ski Champion and James Bond stunt double Mike Nemesvary, whose life was devastated when he broke his neck during a training session. Despite being paralysed from the shoulders down, Mike was determined to get back to the life he enjoyed.  BackUp was initially set up to offer ski courses for those affected by spinal cord injury.
In 1988, the charity formed a partnership with The Calvert Trust and began to expand its courses to challenge and empower people to get “back up“ to a place they were at before their accident. Their support is not solely for people with spinal injuries who wish to participate in sporting activities.

“Our vision is:
A world where people with a spinal cord injury can realise their full potential.
Our mission is to:
 Inspire people affected by spinal cord injury to transform their lives.
  Challenge perceptions of disability.
  Deliver services to build confidence and independence, and offer a supportive network.

Our values:
Driven by the needs of people with spinal cord injury, we are passionate about transforming lives.
Through challenge and fun we open up possibilities to develop, achieve and get the most out of life.
We respect individuality and embrace diversity.
We strive for quality and excellence in all we do. “

Through their accredited mentoring service an individual can be linked with a trained volunteer mentor who is a similar age and injury level, or a family mentor whose relative has a similar injury.  The mentor, from any walk of life, is usually a spinal cord injured peer or relative whose life experiences are relevant.
Once matched with a mentor they will telephone to arrange how often future contact is made and whether that will be by telephone or, if possible, by meeting up. Most mentoring relationships take place over 10 contacts.

BackUp will be our chosen charity for June, and we will also give half of any profit from the Aber Valley Choir Concert to them.
Our local link, and my reason for nominating this charity, is because my son is on the waiting list to train as a mentor having suffered a spinal injury when he was 19.