Charities Helped

Back Up was founded in 1986 by James Bond stuntman, Mike Nemesvary, a world champion freestyle skier who broke his neck during a routine training session on a trampoline aged just 24. Mike wanted a world where people with a spinal cord injury can reach their full potential.

Back Up supports adults and children affected by a spinal cord injury with a range of services from wheelchair skills to activity courses, mentoring and support in getting back to school or work.

NHS figures show that in 2023, 4,400 people in the UK were injured or diagnosed with a spinal cord injury, equating to once every two hours.

The Back Up / October Club partnership will enable the charity to expand its services significantly to reach more of those recently injured and their families. Following a successful pilot programme with the NHS, Back Up will roll out its bespoke support packages from 11 specialist NHS centres to all 33 of the UK’s major trauma centres.

Schoolreaders was founded in 2013 to match volunteers with local primary schools in order to provide free, one-to-one reading support sessions. Its focus is on reaching the most disadvantaged children.

With the funds raised by The October Club in 2023, Schoolreaders has begun its expansion into the North of England. It has recruited six new members of staff and now has 537 registered schools across the region.  2,140 children in the North are currently receiving one-to-one reading support from Schoolreaders volunteers each week.

The need for Schoolreaders’ services is underlined by the fact that, in 2023, 1 in 4 children left primary school unable to read to the required standard. The youngest and most disadvantaged children were particularly affected, with 32% of Key Stage 1 children (aged 6-7) finishing the school year unable to read at the expected standard – an increase of 7% compared to pre-pandemic results in 2019.

If a child leaves primary school unable to read properly their future life opportunities are compromised as they are unable to access their secondary schooling fully. In addition, poor literacy is linked to many longer-term issues in society such as poverty, homelessness, unemployment, mental and physical ill-health, and crime.