Young Redlynch woman joins Dame Ellen MacArthur to launch three-year Ambitions for her cancer charity

Emily Wright, 20, was diagnosed with an optic pathway glioma in 2011 - a kind of brain tumour that affected her vision - and is now registered blind. She spent two years receiving chemotherapy and still experiences fatigue from the treatment.

The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust is a national charity that takes young people aged 8-24 on sailing and outdoor adventures to inspire them to believe in a brighter future living through and beyond cancer.

Alongside Dame Ellen, Emily helped launch ‘Bigger Impact, Brighter Futures – Our Ambitions 2023-2025’, which aims for the Trust to be even more accessible and inclusive to all young people who have a cancer diagnosis in the UK so every young person the charity supports experiences belonging and improved mental wellbeing.

Emily, now studying for an MSCI in Physics with Scientific Computing at Bristol University, first sailed with the Trust aged 13 from Cowes. She has since joined four sailing adventures, including the charity's multi-leg voyage around Great Britain in 2017 and with Dame Ellen in 2022's Round the Island Race. This summer, she will volunteer on a trip.

Emily discovered a new passion for sailing through the Trust and, having been training with GBR Blind Sailing, last year competed at two World Championship events in France and Oman.

Speaking at the launch, Emily said: "The Trust helped me gain confidence and feel like a normal young person again, and in getting back into especially active hobbies, which was an amazing thing to be able to do.

"The Trust isn't about making people love sailing, but the trips made me fall in love with sailing so I now sail whenever possible without impacting too much on my uni studies. It's a brilliant way to find what you love doing and meet other people who are going through it with you.

"Being in the scenario where things like disabilities don't hold you back shows that the things you thought often make you different, do make you different, but for good reasons. And you can bring that and be a really unique and valuable person wherever you go."

When treatment ends, the Trust’s work begins because, for many young people like Emily, simply picking up where they left off before their diagnosis isn’t possible.

Around 12 children, teenagers, and young adults under 24 are diagnosed with cancer daily. Happily, survival rates are increasing. But, of the 3,000 new young people the Trust could work with every year, it can support just 9% of those who go sailing for the first time – less than 1 in 10.

This year, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust celebrates its 20th anniversary. The charity has grown from taking five young people from Great Ormond Street Hospital sailing in 2007 to supporting almost 2,900 young people after treatment from across the UK. The charity hopes to welcome 750 young people sailing or on outdoor adventures this year.

The Trust’s new Ambitions detail how the charity plans to reach, inspire, and support more young people than ever over the next three years.

Dame Ellen said: “Our understanding of the life-changing difference we make to young people living through and beyond cancer is greater than ever.

“We’re learning how to have a ‘Bigger Impact’, and with that comes ‘Brighter Futures’ for more young people who experience the transformational magic of the Trust, whether that transformation happens after one trip or through coming back every year.

“Over 20 years we have evolved as a charity, and we will keep evolving as we strive to be a truly diverse and inclusive youth organisation that is relevant in the world we live in today.

“What we achieve in the next three years will lay the foundations for the next 20, but we will need help and support to get there.”

For more information at the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, including to download ‘Bigger Impact, Brighter Futures – Our Ambitions 2023-2025’, visit ellenmacarthurcancertrust.org or follow @EMCTrust across social media.