Charities

“My two daughters were only nine and eleven years old when I was diagnosed with a brain tumour,” says Simon Dyke, 51 from Exeter, “So they have walked this path for a long time.

“It was 2006, I was 40 years old and we were on a family holiday in France when I first got sick. I came straight back to the UK and was diagnosed with a high grade glioma – a brain tumour.”

Simon Dyke, a former church minister, lived in London where he received radiotherapy, surgeries to reduce the tumour and numerous chemotherapy sessions. But in 2017 when he was told there were no treatment...

For those of you who know or have heard of Pip Bowhay from Kenton, you will be aware that she likes walking and she’s a passionate fund-raiser for local charities; she walked the 479 miles of the Santiago de Compostela back in 2015; shaved her hair off in 2016; has organised abseils down the church tower, frock swaps and compiled a cookbook – these activities together raising way over £10,000!

All this is pretty remarkable, but even more so when you hear that Pip lost half her sight as a result of a stroke in 2007 and her husband Richard passed away at the hospice in Exeter in 2011...

A five-year-old boy from Exeter, who has spina bifida and hydrocephalus, conditions that affect his mobility, has received a specialist tricycle that will allow him to ride outside with his friends and family for the first time. Arthur Alderson is unable to walk unaided and is a part-time wheelchair user. Although he is a confident child, with lots of friends, his poor balance means that he is unable to ride a standard bicycle leaving him a spectator when his friends cycle outside. But thanks to Caudwell Children, the national charity that provides practical and emotional support to...

Residents and volunteers at YMCA Exeter are delighted to announce that a recording of their EP album “Blessing” is now available online to download from Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, Google Play and iTunes.

The EP album is the result of a joint project called ‘Making Invisible People Visible’, between YMCA Exeter and Professor Paul Cloke at The University of Exeter. The album took YMCA Exeter residents’ on an emotional journey through song-writing, creativity and public performance, giving them the opportunity to make their voices heard.

The music programme at YMCA Exeter seeks...