Pebley Beach more than doubles fundraising tally for Swindon Carers Centre

Motor dealer Pebley Beach has more than doubled the fundraising tally achieved by charity Swindon Carers Centre during national Carers Week.

For seven years, the Hyundai and Suzuki car dealership has match-funded the money raised by the charity's activities during Carers Week to the tune of £1,000.
 
Alongside its Walk A Mile initiative – a walk around the centre of Swindon to increase awareness of unpaid carers – Swindon Carers Centre raised £702.81 via a raffle supported by local businesses and a tombola.  
 
And with the cost of living crisis continuing to hit fundraising activities, Pebley Beach decided to donate the entire £1,000, making a total of £1,702.81.  

Fifty participants walked a mile around Swindon town centre on Saturday, June 10, starting and finishing at town centre community space The Hub.

VIP guests included Swindon MPs Sir Robert Buckland and Justin Tomlinson, High Sheriff of Wiltshire Pradeep Bhardwaj, Sarah-Jane Peffers, associate director of patient safety and quality at NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board, Mums on a Mission, Swindon, and Mrs Wiltshire Galaxy Sheri Harvey, who was a registered young carer with the charity and continues to care today.

Swindon Carers Centre exists to offer support to the estimated 18,315 known unpaid carers in Swindon who look after someone – this could be a spouse or partner, son or daughter, sibling, parent, or other relative. 

Swindon Carers Centre believes the figure is likely to be an underestimation as many people don't realise they are a carer - which is why raising awareness of the support available is so key. Carers range in age from children as young as five to carers in their 90s. 

Recently-released data from the 2021 Census suggests that unpaid carers in Swindon are caring for longer than they have been in previous years.

Just under 1 in 50 people (1.8 per cent of the population) are providing between 20 and 49 hours of unpaid carer each week, compared with 1.4 per cent in 2011.

Unpaid carers providing at least 50 hours of care per week increased from 2.5 per cent to 2.6 per cent over the same period. And, according to the Valuing Carers Research Report from Carers UK and the Centre for Care at the University of Sheffield, Swindon unpaid carers save the local economy £592 million a year. This figure has risen by 43 per cent on the previous decade and is the largest percentage increase in the South West.
 
Anne Saunders, media and communications manager at Swindon Carers Centre, said: "Our annual Walk A Mile for Carers Week is a hugely important event for us. 
"It's an opportunity to increase recognition for unpaid carers, as well as to raise vital funds - to support the work Swindon Carers Centre does to improve the wellbeing of people with caring responsibilities in and around Swindon. 
"We are incredibly grateful to have Pebley Beach sponsor Walk A Mile for another year and would like to say thank you to the whole team for supporting unpaid carers in Swindon and their long-standing commitment to this event during Carers Week." 

Jane Newton, customer relationship manager at Pebley Beach, said: "We're delighted to be able to support Swindon Carers again this year. Well done to everyone who helped raise so much money."