Jenny McGeever, an 18 year-old fencer from Tiverton, Devon, has been awarded with a £500 JWCT grant. Jenny is ranked second at the Juniors (under-20) level for Great Britain, despite breaking her elbow in June 2009. She has been selected for the British team for the Junior World Fencing Championships in Baku in April 2010 for both the individual and team events, having achieved one L16, two L32 and two L64 at Junior World Cup events in the 2009/10 season.

Jenny commented on her sport and the grant: “In fencing, everything relies on you being able to read your opponent's moves and out-manoeuvre them and it is often described as physical chess! At an international level, each country has their individual styles so the more people you fence the more you learn. There are also two types of epee grips - the pistol which is used by the vast majority of fencers and the pommel which is used by some fencers especially in France and some Asian countries. Fencing the Junior World Cup circuit, you rarely come up against a pommeller but when you do, it requires completely different tactics. So I am going to use my grant to travel to France and train and compete against pommellers so that I can fine-tune my fencing skills against such opponents.”

Jenny fences will also be competing in the under-23 European Fencing Championships in Gdansk at the end of April. She spends the spare time she has helping raise funds at her club, the Wellington Swords club, for young fencers.

Two girls, both seeking to volunteer overseas with the Project Trust, a gap year organisation, have each been awarded grants of £250 by the JWCT. The JWCT has decided to support Jessica Christiansen and Hilda Eaves as both have struggled to reach their £4,850 fundraising targets due to family circumstances. Jessica, from Morecambe, has a placement on a social care project in Namibia, and Hilda, from Carmarthen in Wales, is due to volunteer in India for 12 months.

Jessica wrote and said “your generous donation will be put towards the good cause of helping primary school children learn English as a foreign language which will help give them a wider range of opportunities for their future.”

Hilda said “thank you very much for your generous donation. My friends are helping me with fundraising. Five of my friends who are boys have agreed to have their legs waxed for charity.”

Tricia Willson, JWCT trustee, said “we are so pleased to be able to help Jessica and Hilda. Jeremy [after whom the charity is named] thoroughly benefited from his year overseas with the Project Trust and we hope both of them have the same positive experience.”

Project Trust was founded in 1967 as an educational charity on the Hebridean Isle of Coll in North West Scotland. Project Trust sends about 200 volunteers to twenty-five countries annually and is widely respected as one of the most experienced and professional gap year organisations in the UK. Over 5,000 volunteers have spent time abroad with Project Trust.

The JWCT has awarded £750 to a group of young climbers aiming to make first ascents and establish new climbing routes in an unfrequented sub-range of Kyrgyzstan’s Central Kokshaal-Too Range of the Tien Shan Mountains, known as the Djangart. The mountains of Djangart are largely unexplored by locals and foreigners alike. Due to their remoteness and the lack of infrastructure only three previous expeditions have visited the five to seven valleys of Djangart; two Russian (in 1932 and 2008) and one British (in 2003).

The team aim to establish new routes of a technical and demanding nature incorporating steep mixed rock and ice climbing on the many virgin peaks that form the Kyrgyz-Chinese border. As Steve Beckwith (a climbing team member said “we will ascend in a pure ‘alpine’ style, negating the use of fixed ropes, bolts or siege tactics; we aim to climb fast and light in a highly committing “ground up” style ascent, carrying the bare minimum of equipment to increase our speed and endurance. We will ensure the highest environmental standards are maintained during these efforts, leaving no artefacts to tell of our passing.”

Whilst in-country the team will support the Alpine Fund, a small non-governmental organisation that supports disadvantaged children by introducing them to mountains and encouraging the utilisation of this resource as a sustainable means of income through tourism and guiding. They have arranged to share some of their experiences with children by giving a series of workshops on climbing techniques and safety as well as donating equipment and taking the children climbing.

Steve added "the contribution from the JWCT has made a pivotal difference to the feasibility of the project, allowing us to execute it in the low impact style we had planned. In addition to this we are now able to support an intern student from the Alpine Fund who will be able to accompany us.”

You can find out more about the expedition at www.kyrgyzstan2010.com.

Sarah Owen, a postgraduate geology student at the University of Leicester, has received a grant of £1,000 from the JWCT towards her field season to Brazil, scheduled for August 2010. This fieldwork will form part of her PhD study entitled ‘Geological Origins of Sugarloaf Peaks in eastern Brazil and their environmental importance as refugia for Atlantic rainforest preservation.’

Sugar loaf peaks are steep-sided, dome-shaped hills and mountains that often stand in isolation and hence can be regarded as a form of inselberg. They are important landforms in tropical regions whose geological origins and geomorphological development are poorly understood. They are particularly abundant in the Brazilian Highlands where they preserve the threatened Mata Atlantica rainforest on their slopes and summits. Sarah’s project is aimed at understanding evolutionary processes of sugar loaf development, the litho-tectonic controls on their evolution and their environmental significance as rainforest refugia.

The fieldwork will be focused within the Pancas region of Espirito Santo, Brazil.

Sarah said on receiving the grant “[I] am astounded by the large variety of projects that you have funded in the past, and feel honoured that my PhD research in Brazil will be included within that list. This award means that I can begin to plan my field season, and collate the important data I need for my research.”

Simon Willson, a JWCT trustee, said “we are pleased to be able to support Sarah in her field studies in Brazil. Jeremy [whom the charity is named after] was passionate about geological fieldwork."

Oliver Kitchen, a courageous 17-year old boxer, has been given a £750 JWCT grant. Ollie has a fantastic opportunity to realise his dream as he has been selected (as one of only ten in the whole country) to attend The Frank Bruno Boxing Academy in Orpington, Kent, where he will be groomed for the 2012 Olympic Games by an ex British Boxing Champion Boxer and Terry Edwards (GB Head Coach, 2000-2008). Ollie’s parents contacted the JWCT due to the increasing financial pressure on the family for accommodation costs, boxing equipment and uniform and training camps that this entailed, including an altitude training camp in Tenerife and a trip to Las Vegas to train with boxing world champions.

Ollie explained his introduction to boxing: “I have been boxing since I was eight years-old and only started boxing to lose weight as at the time I was overweight and was getting bullied for it. . . . Then when I was ten I suddenly found myself really enjoying the boxing part of training and was starting to pick up some skills. I was going down the gym twice a week also at this point in my life I was just going into secondary school and was loosing weight due to the fitness, so my coach turned around just before my eleventh birthday and said that I was ready for my first bout. Then over the next three years . . . I only had seven bouts. This was partly due to me still being heavy for my age and partly due to suffering badly with nerves. As in each of my first seven bouts I was sick in between the bouts and I can't say I really enjoyed the experience! At the time I was told that it would get better and it did.

Then when I was fifteen . . . I was asked to train with the seniors . . . I learnt more in the first six weeks than I did during the whole time I boxed before. I now loved boxing as a sport and . . . I would watch boxing at every opportunity. I was also now winning most of my bouts and no longer being sick in between rounds. So my coach decided to enter me into the National Championships which I was eventually knocked out in the semi-finals to the eventual winner. This made me rank third in the English ranking for my weight and age.”

Since then he was selected for the Western Counties boxing squad, and later crowned Devon, Dorset and Cornwall champion and subsequently Western Counties champion. More recently he reached the quarter finals of the National Amateur Boxing Association Championships, winning two titles on his way – the Southern Area and the Western Counties Championships.

Ollie said “I am now six weeks into the Academy and it’s great. We train twice a day most days with a run in the morning at 6am . . . and train in the night and afternoon. Also at the academy we are doing a BTEC Sport Level Three, a personal training course, lifeguard course and ICT A-level . . . I have had 19 bouts (11 wins, 8 loses). From boxing I want to achieve as much as I can, the coaches at the Academy say that we should all aim for the Olympics and that’s what I am doing. But if I don’t I will still box to the highest level possible.”

Anna Collis, a promising 13 year-old badminton player from Letchworth, has been awarded with a £500 grant from the JWCT towards training, equipment, travel and tournament fees. In particular the funding will contribute towards the regular cost of racquet stringing, a significant cost now that Anna is performing at such a high level.

Anna trains in Hertfordshire and has been playing badminton for two and a half years. During this time she has made exceptional progress and is currently ranked at number three in her age group nationally and plays number one girl for Hertfordshire in her age group. She has played in National, International and European tournaments during the last 12 months.

Although only just 13 she has played up through the age groups, often competing for county and national tournaments against Under-17 players.

Anna’s mother Christine told the JWCT “Anna trains very hard and is dedicated to her sport. I have been told she has raw talent and absolute determination - a formidable combination. She has two aims - to play for England in the Olympics and to coach others in the future. She loves her sport and is on a court at every opportunity. The grant from the Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust will enable her to do some additional training this year which will make a big difference. Thank you."

A 16 year-old para-cycling rider from Swansea, Nathan Tyrrell (pictured at back of tandem), has been awarded a JWCT grant via Sports Aid, a partner organisation of the JWCT. Nathan is visually impaired, and competes in Tandem Cycling races within Paralympic Cycling. The £750 sponsorship will support his travel to and from training (100 miles round trip to the velodrome), strength and conditioning training locally in Swansea, and the increasing costs of equipment he needs to compete. Due to his disability, he has to be accompanied by a parent or adult everywhere he goes which makes the cost of his sport extremely expensive.

Nathan is ranked No.1 in Great Britain in his age group and ‘visually impaired’ classification and already, at a young age, is setting times that are comparable with senior GB and World class riders (cycling rules means only riders aged 18 years and over can compete internationally). Neil Smith, Performance Coach for disabled athletes in Newport confirmed “he is ranked within the top 20 in the World, and once he’s 18 I’m sure he’ll make a significant impact on the World stage . . . He is being monitored by British Cycling on his development through the partnership between our Academy and themselves.” According to the National Coach, Nathan is on track for Paralympic standard for the Olympics in 2012.

Nathan has been part of the Disability Sport Wales Academy (which houses facilities for top-level athletes with disabilities) for four years.

Matt Willson, a JWCT trustee, added “we are really pleased to be helping Nathan achieve his goals with this grant, our third to promising disabled athletes via Sports Aid.”

Raja Chiripal, a young kickboxer from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, has been awarded a £500 JWCT grant. Raja has trained in kickboxing for almost 11 years, from age six, and since then he has made great progress, achieving a junior black belt in December 2005. With this he has overcome many problems he experienced when he was younger, including confidence and weight problems.

Raja started competing nationally in 2006, and is now one of the top competitors in Britain for his age and weight class - coming first in the 2009 WAKO British Championships in the 63kg weight category and second in the adults section. These achievements have secured him places this year in the British squad for the Adult World Championships in France, and Junior European Championships in Croatia. In 2008 he attended the World Junior Championships in Naples, Italy, losing to the World champion in the second round. He is three times British champion in WAKO, ISKA and the former IAKSA governing body (now merged with WAKO), and has won bronze medals in the kickboxing 2008 WAKO Austrian Classics and the 2007 WAKO World Cup in Italy and a silver in the 2007 WAKO Flanders Cup.

Raja’s dedication extends beyond his training; he also voluntarily instructs children and adults for his club, the South East Academy of Martial Arts. Raja won the Sir Steve Redgrave Sports Bursary in 2007 and last year appeared on Blue Peter on BBC1, demonstrating kickboxing techniques on TV with the presenters. He balances a heavy training schedule with a high standard in his academic work; he is currently studying for his A-levels.

Raja said (prior to being awarded a JWCT grant) “I feel honoured to represent my country but due to lack of funding feel I might miss out on the chance to represent this year. It is very hard as kickboxing is not a Sport England recognised sport, so chances of grants and sponsorship are few and far between . . .. Your act of kindness would mean a lot to me, and would mean I can continue to progress within the sport I love.”

Paul Busby, Raja’s coach, commented “I really cannot thank you enough. When I read your email and realised we could now get Raj to the Europeans [Championships] I nearly cried there and then . . . You wouldn't believe how much a little help like this means to us.”

Kent Scouts has awarded £300 to the Apollo Explorers in Gravesham, Kent, to help purchase open canoes, facilitated by a JWCT grant to encourage adventurous activities in the county. The Scout group were having difficulties funding the costs of additional canoes to expand their water-based activities. They have already raised a £1,000 through other fundraising and are looking to raise £3,000. They use the canoes for training for activity permits, for teaching younger Scouts and are also considering conducting Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme expeditions by canoe.

Nick and Tricia Willson, charity trustees, attended the launch of one of the canoes at Yalding, on the River Medway, on 29 July. Nick said “Jeremy was a keen Cub and Scout and as such we are keen to see the JWCT support some of the activities he enjoyed.”

The JWCT has contributed funds to help Ilya Kalenik, a Project Trust volunteer, to travel to and from a training and briefing course on the Isle of Coll in Scotland prior to travelling to an overseas project. The JWCT stepped in as Ilya was struggling to raise the funds to attend due to difficult family financial circumstances.

The funding continues the JWCT’s relationship with the Project Trust. Jeremy Willson, after whom the charity is named, participated in a Project Trust project in Indonesia when he was 18, and hence the charity is keen to support others seeking to volunteer overseas with the organisation, particularly those that are finding fund-raising challenging.

Ilya, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire will spend a year volunteering in Uganda, in East Africa. He will depart in August 2009.

Paula Smalley, at the Project Trust, said “Thank you so much again for your help, Ilya . . . was telling me about the difference your support has made.”

Luke Smallwood, a track athlete from Medway & Maidstone Athletics Club, has been awarded continued funding of £500 by the JWCT to help him continue his running career. Luke specialises in the 400m and 400m Hurdles, but also runs the 100m and 200m. Despite setbacks in the form of injury, this year he ran a sub 48s in the 400m, and 21.80s in the 200m (which put him 13th in the UK at U23 level and established a new club record).

Luke said “I wouldn’t say athletics is the driving force in my life, I would say it is my life! . . . The money will go along way to helping me, including additional treatments, which have really help me beat injury this year, helping me pay for warm weather training in Cyprus and buying a few extra bits of equipment which will help me through my training. When the track opens in Sutton Valance [a village near Maidstone where Luke lives] I’m sure we will obtain a higher level of members and therefore I will be looking to either assist current coaches there or maybe create a new group of my own.”

A climbing expedition has received £500 towards making some repeat and first ascents on mountains in the Western Kokshall-Too Range in Kyrgyzstan. The experienced expedition members (five British and one Finnish) will attempt to make first ascents of the north ridge of Kizil Asker (5,842m), the east and west faces’ of Ochre Walls, the east face to north ridge and west face of Pik Sabor (4,850m), and the west and south faces of Pik Ljosha (4,716m). The expedition also plans to attempt some of the more technical routes on previously climbed peaks which form the southern boundary of the Fersmana glacier: Pik Neizvestniy (5,240m), Zastava (5,010m), Granitsa (5,370m) and Pogranichnik (5,220m).

Tom Bide, Carl Reilly, Graeme Schofield, David Gladwyn, Tom Stewart and Urpu Hapuoja will travel to the region in August 2009. Tom Stewart, expedition leader, explained that “this grant has made a big difference to us and we are extremely grateful.”

Hannah Watson, of University of Bangor, has been awarded £250 by the JWCT for auklet conservation research and monitoring on the Farallon Islands, a group of islands and rocks found in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, 27 miles (43 km) outside the Golden Gate. Hannah (pictured with a rhinoceros auklet) explained “we monitor auklets [a small seabird] breeding in nest boxes across the island to understand reproductive success and how it varies with age, as well as monitoring what adults are feeding their chicks, which provides a wealth of information on productivity within the ocean.” Hannah, who is already on the islands has learnt many new field techniques and a great deal about bird behaviour and reproductive strategies.

Jacqui Gould, an archer from Maidstone, Kent, has been awarded a further grant by the JWCT to help her reach her goal of being on the British archery team and competing in the London Olympics 2012. She has achieved significant success over the last year, and is now ranked seventh in the UK. Additionally she has been awarded an elite performers package from Kent County Council, which includes three free sports science sessions and £1,000 for equipment and training.

Jacqui has unfortunately not been able to train over recent months following a car accident earlier in 2009 which left her with a fractured vertebrae and bed-bound for several weeks. Fortunately the injury should not impair Jacqui’s performance, though will reduce her mobility.

Matt, Jeremy’s twin brother, presented Jacqui with a £1,000 cheque on 24 May at her first training session following her accident. Matt said “we admire Jacqui’s drive and determination to succeed, despite such adversity in her personal life. Jeremy would be proud to support her.”

The JWCT has awarded a further £1,000 to Nicole Watson, a 13 year-old gymnast (pictured with her coach Christine Still). Nicole has achieved great personal success over the past 12 months, including at the Australian Youth Olympics Festival in Sydney in January 2009. Despite a strained foot, Nicole hopes to be invited to the European Youth Olympics in Finland in July, provided she qualifies.

Nicole said "I managed to achieve a lot last year and much of it was due to your [the JWCT's] support. Qualifying for internationals adds a lot to my expenses as I have to do extra competitions as well as my usual national and regional ones. Thank you once again for coming to see me and for your support which helped me get in to the Australian Youth Olympics. Bringing a medal home for Britain is best thing I have done so far in gymnastics. . . Carry on the good work for the Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust, it is a wonderful cause.”

The Willson Family look forward to hearing more news from Nicole in the coming year.

Michael Pope, a young multi-eventist from Hertfordfordshire, has been awarded a further £750 grant from the JWCT via Sports Aid, a partner organisation. Michael has a form of dwarfism, but despite this performs at a high level in a range of disciplines including both field and racquet sports. The 14-year-old also encourages other disabled children to take part in sport by showing that you can succeed even with a disability. He said “I like to think I am a role model for other children with disabilities. I show them that we can succeed and to give them confidence. I always try to give encouragement and say you have to believe in yourself.” On 15 May he was runner-up in the Hertfordshire Young People of the Year Award for being a positive role model to other young disabled people. The teenager is a pupil at Bushey Meads School where he trains with other disabled children in a special unit called Base.

Michael wrote to the JWCT stating “I am very happy that you will continue to sponsor me . . . It will be a great help as I know it costs a lot for me to attend so many competitions all over the place. I have just returned from Largs in Scotland where I participated in the 4 Nations Disabled Badminton Competition last weekend representing England on the Dwarf Athletics Association Badminton Team. I am pleased to tell you that I won two trophies - I was runner up in the Mixed Doubles and winner of the Men’s Doubles.”

Michael has won a host of medals by taking part in the National Dwarf Games in Birmingham, the European Dwarf Games in Belfast and the World Dwarf Games in Paris. His ambition is to qualify for the Paralympics in London in 2012 and to represent Great Britain at shot putt and possibly discus and javelin.

Ben Sneesby, a 14 year-old High Wycombe youngster, has been awarded a further £750 grant from the JWCT via Sports Aid. Sports Aid is a charity helping the next generation of young able-bodied and disabled British sportsmen and women to succeed.

Ben was born with a cancer which has caused his spinal injury, however he is a keen skier and wants to represent Great Britain in the sport. He has shown incredible talent to date and as such is on Great Britain’s Youth Development Team, including getting a chance to get his first race grading this summer in New Zealand with the Development Team.

The funding will help with his training, equipment and travel costs. Tom Willson, Jeremy’s brother, said that “the JWCT is pleased to be able to support Ben’s ambitions in skiing and help him to continue developing his skills on the slopes.”

A project to assess glacier hazards has been funded with a grant of £1,000 from the Royal Geographical Society’s Jeremy Willson Award, funded by the JWCT. The Aberystwyth University expedition team (Matt Westoby, Alex Neen and John Balfour) will investigate recent ‘surging’ behaviour and hazard development on the Belvedere Glacier, a humid-temperate, heavily debris-covered glacier located in the Valle Anzasca, in the Italian Alps. Their studies will look into how glacier recession and the subsequent development of glacier-related hazards have both greatly accelerated the risk of glacial lake outburst floods which have been widely reported in regions including the Karakoram and Nepal Himalaya.

Matt emphasised the importance of the research stating “studies of the dynamics and factors that influence melting on debris-covered glaciers are rare, and so any data gathered are invaluable since the contribution to global sea level rise from the melting of these high-mountain ice masses is deemed to be significant (due to their location, such glaciers will experience some of the most pronounced warming and subsequent recession in the face of future climate change) and currently overlooked by the majority of global climate change models.”

The data gathered during the expedition will form the basis of two Masters theses (for Matt and Alex) and a complementary project for John, who has recently been accepted to read for an MSc Quaternary Science at Royal Holloway. The team departs for Macugnaga in June 2009. Matt added that he would like to “thank the Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust and the Willson family for your generous support towards our fieldwork activities.”

Matt Willson, a JWCT trustee, said of Samantha’s expedition, “it compliments Jeremy’s interests well, since he was a keen vulcanologist and had travelled throughout Guatemala. He would in particular have been interested to read the technical aspects of the research.”

Louise’s placement is in South Africa working with children in Johannesburg at the Cotlands Baby Sanctuary, a non-governmental organisation offering shelter, medical and psychological care to abused and abandoned babies with AIDS. Louise explained “I see my gap year as a unique opportunity in which I hope I will learn to understand a different culture and new way of life. I also believe it will have a huge impact on me as a person. I think it will enable me to be more open minded and willing to at least attempt anything. I am sure it will give me the courage to explore things for myself and have a different outlook on the world.”

Natasha, 17, will be placed at the Outward Bound School in South Africa. She is busy applying for her work permit and is due to start this project in January 2009 and has held a number of successful fundraising events, including running in the Dunfermline Half Marathon. Natasha said “I am a seventeen year old student who is passionate about contributing something to the world I live in, I am a fun-loving, very sporty type of girl and Project Trust has really brought me out of my shell.”

Alessandro, an Italian national with extensive winter mountaineering experience, received funding for travel and accommodation costs at Tarfala research station as well as shipping of equipment for his expedition.