The Bendrigg Trust

The 3R Foundation recently awarded £1000 to the Bendrigg Trust for 14x Children's Lifejackets.

Bendrigg is an outdoor education centre in Cumbria. They specialise in supporting disabled children to access outdoor adventures. They have 64 beds and children come from all over the region and across the UK to stay with them.

They welcomed 4,000 visitors to Bendrigg in 2024. They have an amazing team of highly trained tutors who use adaptive equipment so that children can take part in climbing, kayaking, caving, zip wire, bushcraft and many other exciting activities. They are one of only a handful of outdoor centres who are able to accommodate and truly enable children with learning, physical and sensory disabilities to take part.

The grant from the 3R Foundation was used to buy 14 life jackets for when they take children kayaking and paddle boarding. Life jackets are obviously an essential piece of kit when on the water, and they use a variety of types and sizes so that they can adjust them to meet someone's body size, weight, mobility needs, swimming and confidence in the water. They have recently fundraised for a brand new fleet of canoes and are in the wonderful position that they can now take more participants at a time onto the water, hence needing more equipment to keep people safe. Life jackets also have a working lifespan beyond which they are no longer safe to use, and so some of their existing jackets have now been retired as they have been replaced with new ones.

If the 3R foundation could help with funds for a vital piece of equipment, then clubs and groups can apply for a grant using our simple form: