Charities Helped

Since 2012, Spark Inside has provided transformational life coaching support to more than 2,000 people in prison. Its award-winning programmes, delivered by highly qualified, expert life coaches, offer young people aged 15 to 30 in the criminal justice system a real route to change and a crime-free future.

External evaluations have found that Spark Inside’s programmes have lead to statistical improvements in participants’ choices, behaviours and decision-making, with the young people making tangible progress in education, training and employment.

To date, Spark Inside has operated predominantly in London. With funds raised by The October Club, Spark Inside can expand its services in the Midlands to cover at least 300 additional young men across three prisons, a section of the prison population that is currently underserved, with less funding and fewer interventions.

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.