Clare Milne Trust awards over £87,000 to support people with disabilities – Adsurf shares their story

17th July is Clare’s Day, which celebrates Clare Milne’s legacy.

Together, Cornwall Community Foundation and Clare Milne FundA sum of money made available for grant making, often with specific criteria/conditions. have awarded over £87,000 to support people with disabilities across Cornwall since 2010. This has funded small and well-run groups with strong support from volunteers.

Our Fund Development Manager, Sophie recently spent the afternoon at Summerleaze Beach in Bude with one of these inspirational projectsA piece of work that delivers an output., called Adsurf.

Adsurf is a charity that offers accessible and adaptive surfing to people with disabilities, mental health conditions and neurodiversity.

The Adsurf team revealed how support from the Clare Milne Trust has funded essential kit to enable more people with disabilities to access the sea for surfing.

The Claire Milne Trust’s focus is to support people of all ages with a disability who live in Devon or Cornwall, to help them to live a full and active life.

Sophie was joined by Gill, Trustee of AdSurf and Kevin, Jackie and Margaret, Trustees of the Clare Milne Trust Fund and told us:

“The adapted wetsuits and surfboards have made access to surfing easier and more comfortable for a lot of our participants. Putting on a wetsuit can be a challenge in itself,and to have suits adapted to make this less stressful, makes a huge difference.”

Gill told us that a participant found it extremely difficult to put on a standard wetsuit. With the help of the suit and kit, together with our seated board, he was able to experience the feel of the waves and smiled throughout his session. He is returning for another session of an activity and it’s benefits that was not even thought possible for him.

For more information about giving to your community through Cornwall Community Foundation activity click here.