A local young man’s mother came to us to ask if we could help raise people’s awareness of her son’s determination, commitment and hard work to achieve his ambition to travel to Malaysia in April 2025 to study and train in marine conservation. This lady took the time to come and knock on my door to ask for our help, which is what our Around Town show is all about. What you are about to read gives an indication of this young man’s determination to achieve his personal goals, and try to make a real difference in the world.
It goes without saying we will use our show as a platform to help this young man in any way we can and we have invited Tyler and his mother, Steph, to be our guests in the studio on Sunday 24th March to learn more about this young man and why he is so passionate and determined to make his dream a reality. Tyler’s story so far;
Tyler is 13 years old and attends Woodham Academy. He has signed up to go on a school trip to Malaysia in April 2025 with school. The school trip is going to cost £4000. From the beginning Tyler has been adamant that he will pay for the trip himself through hard work and determination, he wants to be able to say ‘I raised this money myself’.
During his trip to Malaysia he will be assisting with marine conservation and learning how to be more sustainable. Alongside this he will carry out reef surveys and monitor the environment to learn about the impact on the coral.
Tyler’s family found out about the trip in September ‘23, and within a month he had raised the deposit for the trip himself by doing extra chores and making a family member’s garden winter ready, a job that took him 12 hours of hard graft over a two day period, before literally diving head first into his next challenge. He loves swimming and challenged himself to swim a marathon! This required a total of 1688 lengths of the Newton Aycliffe swimming pool. Tyler set himself a target of six weeks but achieved it in 32 days, with the staff and other swimmers cheering him on and asking for updates whenever he went in.
Tyler’s fund currently stands at £1900, and his next challenge will be both physically and mentally tough. He loves basketball so has decided to dribble a basketball around a court for a total of 13.1 miles. Tyler’s family are holding the ‘dribbleathon’ on Saturday 20th April, the location is TBC. During the ‘dribbleathon’ there will be a raffle and tombola as well as a cake sale and some mini basketball games with prizes to be won.
Tyler and his family have had a great deal of support from several businesses in the community with donations from: Tesco, Asda, Thames Fruit and Veg shop, Durham Climbing Centre, Roots hairdressers, Pushing Ink tattoo studio, Thames Diner, Foxglove Heating and Kim’s Kitchen, and they can’t thank these local businesses enough for their donations and kind support.
They are still looking for raffle and tombola prizes or local businesses to sponsor
Tyler during his fundraising dribbleathon, and would love lots of people to come and support Tyler during his dribbleathon, whether this be running around the court with him or just being there to support and cheer him on. Maybe you are able to help him in some small way, or just offer him a little of your time to help cheer him on, and see for yourself not all young un’s are bad un’s, and some given half the chance can make you feel proud of what they are trying to achieve.
Tyler’s Go Fund Me page:
https://gofund.me/c91db36b
Phill & Andy
Around Town, Aycliffe Radio