Phil Packer brings inspiration to young people of Portsmouth on his epic 2012-mile walk and seeks community support
An epic bid by Phil Packer MBE to walk 2012 miles around Britain this year despite being told he’d be unlikely to walk again will reach Portsmouth Historic Dockyard on Monday 30th January. He is calling on the local community to join him in the challenge and show their support for young people facing adversity.
Phil, the founder of the British Inspiration Trust who suffered severe spinal cord damage in 2008, is asking the young people, businesses and public of Britain to get involved in raising £15million to build a Centre of Inspirational Excellence for young people needing to overcome adversity. In Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, he will be walking 10 miles starting from the Visitor Centre at 10:00 and is appealing for young people to voice their support for his quest online. He also wants people of all stages to join him on the local leg of his walk to show that they back his bid to build the facility.
Over the course of 2012 Phil is making his way through locations chosen by young people in every county of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, including Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. On the way, he is meeting Britain’s youth who are facing physical and mental adversity.
“I’m asking communities across the country to come together and join me in our mission to help young people believe in themselves again. As part of this journey I am appealing for people in Portsmouth to show that they care about the youth of their community and their country by backing what I’m doing so Britain sits up and takes notice,” said Mr Packer.
Given his three-way focus of engaging youth in the challenge, supporting charities and building a centre for inspiration using funding from businesses, Phil’s BRIT 2012 Challenge has three distinct elements:
Red – Every school, college & university in Great Britain and Northern Ireland is invited to register for the BRIT 2012 Challenge and complete 2012 miles in 2012 as a team purely to support the youth by acknowledging there are young people who face adversity.
White – BRIT is asking 2012 businesses to take a £5,000 or £10,000 or Pledge (there are 1,000 of each) to raise the £15million for the BRIT Centre of Inspirational Excellence; the whole workforce can also complete the 2012 miles as a team should they wish.
Blue – Every charity is encouraged to register with BT My Donate so that any member of the public, as an individual or team, can register for the BRIT 2012 Challenge and raise funds for a charity of their choice.
Registration for The BRIT 2012 Challenge is via the BRIT website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The money raised by the business world will help build a unique BRIT Centre of Inspirational Excellence, a facility in Chichester, West Sussex, that will provide support to help reshape the lives of young people facing adversity and instil a new sense of self-belief. The centre will work closely with charities so they can identify young people who face their darkest times and could benefit from attending a residential course at BRIT. Phil already has 50 charity CEOs as BRIT advisors who believe in the need for the centre.
“My work supporting other charities over the last four years and meeting young people facing adversity identified the importance of regaining self-belief, self-confidence and self-worth. The mental and psychological challenges of facing adversity are immense, and meeting positive role models and inspirational figures who are willing to spend time with young people is a stepping stone to overcoming adversity. My vision is for a centre that serves young people, and brings charities and their best practice together, helping out youth to decide what they want to achieve in life and how to do it. I’m also asking local businesses to consider how they can get involved with a pledge that shows their support of our youth and the future of our country,” said Phil.
Phil is walking each stage at specific venues rather than on roads, to ensure that there is no traffic disruption or burden to the police or local authorities. The BRIT 2012 Challenge will finish in London in December.
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Notes to Editors
The BRIT Focus
With a wealth experience gained from listening to young people, BRIT defines ‘Young People facing Adversity’ as those aged between 16 and 25:
· With a physical or mental disability, or medical condition;
· With injuries including wounded service personnel
· Young carers & those suffering deprivation
The Government estimates 1 in 17, or 600,000, young people are classed as having a disability in the UK. BRIT understands that coping with adversity can be devastating. Dealing with the loss of self-esteem, confidence and self-worth can plunge an individual into a dark place from which they do not know where to turn and this is where BRIT will aim to help.
BRIT is represented by The Young Person’s Visionary Steering Group, made up of young people from charities that support BRIT, which helps steer to the cause forward and ensure young people are at the heart of what the charity does. BRIT has the support of politicians, high profile mentors and 50 CEOs.
About Phil Packer MBE
Phil Packer served in Her Majesty’s Forces for 17 years and sustained spinal cord damage in February 2008 while serving on operational duty. Subsequently told it was highly unlikely he walk again, Phil has since founded BRIT (the British Inspiration Trust). He rowed the English Channel, walked the London Marathon over 14 days on crutches, and hauled himself up El Capitan completing 4,250 pull-ups in three days, raising £1.3million for wounded military personnel in 2009. Phil received the Pride of Britain Fundraiser of Year Award and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award. In 2010, he climbed the Three Peaks during 72 hours for Sport Relief, before smashing his time in the London Marathon by completing the 26 miles in 26 hours for 26 charities, accompanied on each mile by a young person from each charity. He received the MBE (military) in 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the armed forces, prior to his retirement in March 2010.
Phil Packer is the founder and non-paid chief executive of the British Inspiration Trust.
