My Story

I've decided to give the London Marathon a go... The mind is way ahead of the body on this - I'm seizing up like an old car  - but getting some sponsorship behind me will hopefully see me through.

I am especially grateful to The Sailors' Society for finding a place for me. They (and I) would be thrilled by any donations you could make for this most important of charities working in our industry today.

Seafarers are the compenent part of the shipping industry who work the hardest and complain the least. They are the lifeblood of seaborne trade, but their lives are not plain sailing.

The crew on board our ships face a whole host of challenges while they perform their vital roles: lonliness, sickness, fatigue, injury, prolonged separation from their families, bereavement, arrest. The Sailor's society gives these sailors and their families support and a voice at times when they feel they have none.

Below is a tribute to the charity from an Indian sailor, Anand, who was arrested and sentenced to a year in prison over a paperwork discrepancy when his ship was abandoned. The Sailor's Society worked with lawyers to secure Anand's release and provided a chaplain to visit him in his cell with food, drink and a phone so that he could speak to his family.

"I was so very far from home and I missed my family - but Sailors' Society has made my heart so much lighter. I hold you in my heart as family"

Please donate to this wonderful cause knowing that it really will help those who need it most.

With thanks, George