Shared from Within Reach Magazine Summer 2025. Read it now!
Frank saw a need for Reach children to “connect, face new challenges and push themselves” – the ‘Camp 2000 Project – which was to become the activity week we now know and love.
Recently, as editor of this magazine, I pored over back issues of Within Reach to gather photos and feelings from the last 25 years, delving into the wonderful legacy that Frank left us…
Frank felt that Reach’s young people, the 10+ year old members, needed time together to play, try new activities and grow in confidence. The idea of a Reach activity week was born, but the charity needed funding. Frank began raising awareness, sought donations from high and low, and in the run-up to 2000, Frank campaigned tirelessly. In WR 1999 he shared, “Over the past 4 weeks I have been dashing around Devon giving my ‘Feet first’ talk and raising money for our Camp 2000 project.”
And wonderfully in 2000, sue Stokes announced the good news, that the camp was going ahead!
“25 children over the age of 10 have already reserved places for an event which will include sailing, climbing, archery, canoeing, pony-riding, abseiling, dancing, socialising, and much more.”
Frank’s fundraising continued into the summer of 2000:
“On the 19th May I am off to the House of Lords again, this time the guest of the Calvert Trust who are helping us with our camp 2000.”
Finally, on the 5th August 2000, at the Calvert Trust Centre at Keilder in Northumberland, forty campers arrived for the week, including a youth group from Hungary, and the rest is history.
Year after year, funds were raised and the Reach kids had this wonderful week to look forward to.
Lifelong friendships were made in that first week, and they’ve continued to be forged year on year ever since. A week that was and is so much more than children with upper limb differences abseiling and climbing – it’s a week of learning from each other, observing, sharing and being 100% themselves. RAW invites an unexplainable feeling of connection; a space of complete acceptance, no questions of how or why, no stares, but plenty of looks of awe and interest. Inspiration in its organic form. Young and old, all in it together.
RAW thoughts…
Emily Tisshaw
“[RAW] changed my life in the best way; confidence, tenacity, determination, courage, compassion, and of course I had the MOST fun! A place where you are the norm for once. Nothing is considered “odd” or unusual because we all get it and can all learn and grow from each other.”
Louise Devlin was at the very first camp. 25 years on, Louise is an adult member and mentor…
“I was recently reminded of my time attending RAW as a 12-year-old, when Max sent me the article from 2000 written by Reach legend Frank Letch — who I have very fond memories of. The article, about the first ever RAW at the Calvert Trust Centre had a quote from 12-year-old me saying: ‘I was very scared climbing up the tower, but the instructor Addie made me feel safe!’”
Life can be scary for a limb-different person — and not just when climbing to great heights, but in navigating the world day to day. A safe space is what RAW gave me, and what Reach as an organisation continues to provide for children and adults alike.
There’s nothing quite like being surrounded by people who can relate to your life experience in a way that limb-typical folk simply cannot. It was true for me as a young person, and it was true again when I was warmly welcomed back as a mentor in 2023 and 2024.
There’s nothing quite like being surrounded by people who can relate to your life experience…
I love that the young people who attend now can keep in touch through social media, with albums on their smartphones to flick through in years to come. I hope they’ll stay connected to the Reach community, as I believe it will help equip them with the confidence to embrace their difference out in the world.
I only attended one RAW before becoming a teenage girl who wasn’t so interested in identifying as a one-handed person or drawing attention to that aspect of myself. Because of that, I never attended again. But it was a part of my journey — and it’s why I’m so keen to encourage members to get involved and stay involved!
I have hazy but treasured memories of the friends I made there. I remember a girl called Danielle — she didn’t wear a prosthetic (I wore a cosmetic one at the time), had tanned skin, and long dark hair she could whip into a ponytail herself. I thought she was the coolest! Another lovely friend, Clare, with a short brown bob, was sweet and kind. We remained pen pals for a while. She would send me posters of my favourite band, Steps, torn from Smash Hits magazine, and I’d reciprocate with posters of 5ive. (We were quite the cool cats.) I lost touch with both of them as the years passed — I can’t remember why. House moves, growing up, life.
When Max sent me that old article, I remembered Danielle abseiling down an outdoor climbing wall on the front cover. Two minutes later, she sent me the very photo I’d pictured— my friend from 25 years ago, mid-descent. It took me straight back to Calvert, and the admiration I felt for my Reach friends there. A quiet reminder of how some people and moments never really leave you.
If you’ve ever thought about attending RAW, or encouraging someone you care for to attend, I can only say: do it! You never know whose face, words, or encouragement will stay with you for the next 25 years.
Shared from Within Reach Magazine Summer 2025. Read it now!