Bpa Launches Fundraising Campaign

The British Paralympic Association (BPA) has launched a new fundraising campaign, asking the public to help SuperCharge ParalympicsGB to show their support to the team. 

It is the first time that the BPA has launched a major public facing campaign to generate support and funds for ParalympicsGB.

Following a home games in London, the team will now face a decade of long haul travel, with upcoming games in Rio, Pyeongchang, Tokyo and Beijing. It means that competing will be more expensive for the BPA to support athletes.

The BPA is a registered charity and has received some public fundraising support, but the SuperCharge ParalympicsGB campaign will look to be a major drive to fundraise money.

Alongside support already received from the National Lottery and the BPA’s commercial partners, the funds raised will help prepare the team in the final days before Rio and lay the ground for the future.

Supercharge ParalympicsGB is being supported by the BPA’s blue chip commercial sponsors and by four ambassadors, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Clare Balding, Eddie Izzard and Alex Brooker.

Paralympic BPA patron Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson expressed her strong support for the campaign, saying: “The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games will be the toughest, most competitive Games yet and ParalympicsGB will need to be the best it’s ever been to win the medals the nation craves. The team needs as much support and preparation as possible in the final crucial months of preparation to win those medals and ensure Great Britain continues to be a leading force in Paralympic sport over the next decade. I am delighted to be part of this campaign to ask the British public to give its support.”  

Fellow BPA patron and disability sport supporter Clare Balding is also one of the SuperCharge ambassadors. She said: “Paralympic sport goes from strength to strength and we saw in London just how much the British public got behind the ParalympicsGB team. I know that ParalympicsGB will absolutely enthrall and excite the British public again this summer. But to do so they will need to make sure that everything they do is world-class so that they can produce those world class performances.”

Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of the British Paralympic Association, said of the launch: “We want to leave no stone unturned in our efforts to win medals and make the nation proud in Rio and beyond. That means getting the public and our partners involved to help to Supercharge the team to make the ParalympicsGB team as successful and inspiring to others as possible.

“We have incredible support already from the National Lottery and UK Sport, but the crucial final part of the journey to Rio requires as much funding as possible to ensure the team are ready for success. That is why we are launching this campaign and asking the public for its support. How far all our athletes go depends on you.”