Find out more
On 5 May, three boys from the Picton, along with Mr Murray, embarked on an ambitious trip to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. The boys, David L, Alex W-G and Jasper K, represent the ‘Cerebral Palsy Trust’ and the reason they were there was to discuss how to move forward with the incredible fundraising that has been done so far by the CPT.
For those who are not aware of Cerebral Palsy Trust’s incredible story so far, the trust was created by a group of pupils at Wellington College who wanted to raise awareness and support for the cerebral palsy community.
This idea began when David L, who was born with cerebral palsy, decided to walk the Kingsleys (a famous run which takes place at the end of the Lent Term, which concludes with running through Swan Lake!).
During May 2021 David completed his walk in just under 10 hours with overwhelming support from the whole community, raising £143,000 in the process.
On 18 November 2021 CPT hosted a charity dinner at Twickenham Stadium with a celebrity panel which included Nicolas Hamilton, James Haskell and Jason Carl Fox. From this event a further £104,133 was raised.
Since then the CPT team have continued fundraising through the creation and sales of merchandise and Friday Night Lights (a sports events at Wellington College).
Over the last 3 years the CPT has raised over £230,000 for children with cerebral palsy, allowing those who don’t come under NHS funding to have the life changing ‘selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery’. This surgery, which David was fortunate to have when he was younger, is new to the UK, with Great Ormond Street being the leading institution in this field. Both the CPT and Great Ormond Street are very excited about their partnership and working together in the future.
Picton Housemaster, Mr Murray commented about the day:
In one of those brilliant pastoral moments of pride that defy explanation, David, Jasper and Alex (representing the whole of the CPT) went to Great Ormond Street to meet with Mr Aquilina (the surgeon who presented at the November event at Twickenham) and the SDR clinical team. The boys were immaculate in their presentation and it was a very successful meeting. There will be more details coming soon but it is safe to say this partnership is one that will go far beyond just the life-changing SDR surgery that the boys have fundraised for. We cannot wait to share more and as the CPT stands on the cusp of this partnership and seeing the first children benefit from the surgery it is worth acknowledging that none of this would be possible without the incredible generosity of the Picton parents and Wellington community. As I said at open houses on Saturday to potential new Picton boys for 2024, the CPT is the perfect encapsulation of our house culture and what makes this house and the boys within it so special.
For regular updates please follow CPT HERE.
or to go to their website to Donate HERE.
