Roux races past his fundraising target

Roux races past his fundraising target

Meet Roux Fletcher – quite possibly one of the busiest 11-year olds you will ever meet. In between his involvement with the Guernsey Sailing Trust and his love of engineering, young Roux has also been working hard to ‘Buy a Night’ for the PPBF.

This fundraising story starts with a family dog walk when Roux and his mum, Lisa, bumped into the PPBF’s co-founders: Jo and Andy Priaulx. In true Guernsey style, the families had already crossed paths in earlier years as Lisa and Jo attended the same local school while Andy had worked with Lisa before his racing career took off. 

When realising the connection, Roux was eager to know if Andy had any remote-control cars going spare and, to his delight, he did. When Andy gave Lisa a call to kindly offer the RC cars he’d found at home, Lisa proposed to Roux that he save up some money (£60 to be precise) which would be enough to ‘Buy a Night’ for the PPBF, in exchange for the cars. 

Lisa was surprised to discover that Isaac’s Pad – one of the charity’s Southampton-based flats for the families of premature babies and poorly children needing off-island treatment – was named after Roux’s school friend, Isaac. 

Isaac was born prematurely and spent 29 days in Southampton Hospital. His parents had been staying in a hotel and Isaac’s grandparents kindly gifted a flat to the PPBF, which was just a stone’s throw from the city’s Neonatal Unit. The property has since made a huge difference to many local families by alleviating some of the stress that comes with seeking off-island treatment for a little one. 

With this motivation, Roux was up for the task and got straight to work to buy his night. He started off with some gardening tasks for his grandparents and later began helping a family friend, Mark, with his 48ft yacht renovation project – the perfect job for someone who loves sailing as much as Roux.

‘I’ve been sanding, preparing surfaces, helping with applying the Sikaflex sealer and cleaning out the mucky bits.’ said Roux. ‘I’m small enough to crawl everywhere! It was hard and I got very tired, but I enjoyed the work.’

Not only did Roux raise enough for one night, he also raised enough for a second night. With around £120 in the piggy bank, he surprised Jo and Andy with this achievement at their Buy-A-Night launch party on World Prematurity Day. Roux also helped with some fundraising throughout the evening for additional nights – we’re lucky to have such a charismatic young supporter!

Roux’s chosen date for his purchased night is 25^th November – his birthday – which will be added to our calendar for Isaac’s Pad and personalised with his name. The second night purchased will be gifted to Isaac.

We would like to congratulate Roux on a brilliant achievement. We hope that it will inspire others through a very important message: every night counts. Contributions like these will allow us to continue maintaining Isaac’s Pad and Aggie’s Burrow for those who need it most. 

Find out how you can be part of our Buy-A-Night campaign here.