Dear Inner Wheel of Great Britain and Ireland

We are delighted to have been selected by your president, Zena Coles as Inner Wheel’s chosen charity for 2016-17. When we met with Zena we were struck by her passion for raising awareness of eating disorders, following her 18-year-old granddaughter’s admission to hospital for treatment for anorexia in 2015. With 725,000 people in the UK diagnosed with an eating disorder, your support will widen the help we can offer to individuals through our helplines and the work we do with young people.

Throughout our partnership, our Ambassadors will be available whenever possible to come to your clubs to talk about their stories and experiences. Many of our Ambassadors are aged 14-25 and they all have a personal story of recovery from an eating disorder. They use their inspirational words to promote the message of hope that recovery is possible.

“Her way of communicating was very relaxed and she managed, I think without really knowing it, to convey so many important and powerful messages that our group had not heard from their daughters which will help them and their loved ones on their onward journeys. There was hardly a dry eye once she left and the parents wanted me to pass on their gratitude and thanks to Michelle. I think her talk will have helped enormously in different ways for different parents.” A parent, after hearing from a Beat Young Ambassador.

We hope you will organise a Step & Smile sponsored walk to help people affected during Eating Disorders Awareness Week in February 2017* as we tackle the myths and misunderstandings surrounding these serious mental illnesses. Take part and encourage your local Inner Wheel Club, District and local community to raise awareness and help to fund our essential support services.

*we’d like to Step & Smile as far and wide as we can during our awareness week but walks can be held at any time between July 2016 and April 2017.

We are very much looking forward to working with you over the coming year.

Best wishes 

Andrew Radford
Chief Executive, Beat