A North Yorkshire family’s annual festive fundraiser for Spinal Research is hoping to reach a staggering £100,000 this Christmas.
The Sheltons started growing Christmas Trees at Lowfield Farm, near Skipton, in 1999. Three years later Rob Shelton’s life changed in an instant when a winter morning’s commute to work ended in an horrific car crash which left the father-of-three paralysed from the neck down.
“One of my last acts before my accident was to plant some Christmas trees on this rough land on the farm and the kids started selling them a few years later,” said Rob, a Trustee of Spinal Research since 2013.
“As we planted more and word got out we decided we would start donating the profits to Spinal Research. Since then it has just grown and grown and we now donate all the proceeds from Christmas tree sales. We’ve so far raised £80,000 and it would be amazing if we could reach £100,000 this year.
“There’s such a strong following across Skipton and the surrounding area and we’re hoping people will once again come to Lowfield to buy their Christmas trees and support the vital work of Spinal Research.”
Every two hours someone in the UK is paralysed after a spinal cord injury. It can happen to anyone, at any time with devastating consequences.
The Lowfield team plants around 2,000 Norwegian Spruce trees every year and Rob added: “Every single penny raised takes us closer on the journey of restoring functions and movement to people, like me, who live daily with the effects of a spinal cord injury.
“It’s such a promising time with pioneering treatments and therapies coming through to clinical trials offering real hope that a cure for paralysis will be one of the medical breakthroughs of the 21st century.”