The seventh Joe Way Paddle for Life gets ready for its ‘Sunset Session’ on the beach on Thursday 26th June at Newquay Harbour.

Actor Ben Richards has been a long term supporter of Joe’s Appeal donating scripts from ITV’s “The Bill”, helping with PR on his visits to Cornwall where he has also learnt to surf with world number 2 Ben “SKINDOG” Skinner and also tried his hand on the Flowrider during his last visit.

The actor has recently fought bowel cancer and is acting again appearing as Bill Sykes in Oliver. Ben Richards said, “I’ve always enjoyed our visits to Cornwall and have been proud to help Joe’s Appeal it’s an inspiring story and now the paddle event will also donate to Bowel Cancer UK of which I am the current patron”.

The annual charity paddle has a great musical sunset session on the beach with Ben Sutcliff from “The String Peoples Foundation”, Newquay’s Steel Appeal, who are a 10 piece steel drum band and two more acts are still to be confirmed.

The charity fun Paddle starts at 4pm, music starts from 5pm until late and at around 6.30pm Titan the Robot will arrive to entertain the crowds.

Matt Way, Joe’s dad, said; “last years live music was awesome and with the great weather we had a footfall of over 1000 people, the event just keeps getting bigger. We are so grateful for the business support that we have and the bands all playing for free to entertain the town”.

Matt continued, “We are looking for anyone who has been affected by bowel cancer in any way to sign up to the paddle and raise money for this important charity along with the 20 other causes we support”.

Paddlers and swimmers ages start from 9 years upwards and the entry fee is £10 per adult, £15 for a team of four for the relays and £5 per child (under 18’s) which is paid on the day with everyone also getting a certificate and a discount for food. The event is about family fun and everyone helps each other along.

There is the fun 200m paddle, the fun 1km, the relay 1km and then the RNLI’s Joe Way memorial cup.

This year will also see the usual great food, Kids entertainer Harry Kazzam, face painting and lots of local charities taking part.

The event starts at 4pm and the last registration and time in the water is 6.30pm so there is plenty of time to arrive when people have finished work, Titan the Robot and the lifeguard race is just after 6.30pm. Boards are provided with lots of help from Newquay and Lusty Surf Life Savers so all you need is your wetsuit or trunks, swimmers. SUP’s and canoes are welcome.

The Joe Way Paddle for life which was held in June handed out the awards at their latest fundraiser at the Fistral beach bar which was raising money for the British longboard team who will represent the country at the ISA world games at Peru.

The “Endless Fundraiser” which was hosted by the Fistral beach bar along with Newquay surf life savers, included a Fistral Rangers session with Karl and an opportunity to surf along side some of the British team.

Newquay musician Joe Hurworth entertained the crowds and this years Paddle for life trophies where handed out, the 1km relay was won this year by the Newquay surf life savers team and the SUP cup was won by Jordan’s SUP team. The highest fundraiser trophy was retained by the Wave Project again this year

The winning team of the RNLI relay where the Carrick team and the Joe Way memorial cup was retained by North Fistral.

£1,000.00 was raised for the team with a donated keg from skinners which raised £200, the Beach bar added another £100 to the beer money and the raffle raised £350 with prizes from Rocky point, Fifteen, Driftwood Spars, Bodhi’s café along with many more prizes.

The Auction then run by Steve Skinner generated another £350 with a great O’Neill Clothes package, O’Neill wetsuits, a Jet ski training day, Body board and a tour around the Police fire arms HQ.

The GB surfing team are aiming to raise £10,000.00 to cover the trip and to also have some money left towards training the next generation of teamgb as there is no current funding for surfing.

To see photos of the fundraiser at Joe's FB page CLICK HERE

2014 Paddle for life date Thursday 26th June 2014

The sixth Joe Way Paddle for life was hailed another success after an amazing turn out.

The weather was at its best as the town along with holiday makers turned out in force to support the annual fundraiser.  Steel Appeal played on the beach as families enjoyed picnics and watched the action in a Caribbean atmosphere.

This year’s event saw a footfall of over a thousand spectators and over 300 paddlers of all ages and abilities taking part in the 200m, 1km fun paddle and the1km relays, to do their bit to raise money for some of the 20 charities now supported by the Joe Way Appeal.

The sunset sessions kicked off with Ben Sutcliff playing on the harbour stage, followed by The Strawdogs and then finishing in the Rowing Club with Jethro Baines which was a great show case for the best of Cornish music.

Matt Way said; “five years ago we had no idea how we would cope with the loss of Joe. However in the middle of the beach watching the hundreds of paddlers, listening to the music, watching our volunteers and seeing the thousand plus spectators it became clear to me that you learn to live with the loss with the help of others and we are extremely lucky to have so much support”.

The 1km relay was won this year by Woody’s Paddlers and the SUP cup was won by Jordan’s SUP team. The highest fundraiser trophy was retained by the Wave Project again this year.

Once again local businesses and charities ensured the event was run to a high standard and the Way family would like to thank Soundworx, First Response GB, Purple Gecko Events, Perranporth Signs, Skindog Surfboards, tbsurfing, Scott Dickinson Creative, Hutton Hire, indo board, frontline security, newquay activity center, P&J Print, Gould Radio, Skinners Ales, Bookers, Coastal Crepes, Ultra Entertainment, Newquay Lions and Leo’s, Sainsbury’s, Golant Fire, Newquay and Lustyglaze SLSC, JLT Insurance, Southwest Hire, Karl Fice-Thompson, Owen Clements, Anton Roberts, Harry Kazam, Bucaneer Bay, Newquay’s fishermen, RNLI, Dean Woods, The Rowing Rlub, Julia Sharland and the check in team, Sue Butler and Harbour Master Graham Aecock-Smith who all supported the event which runs at zero cost.

Skyhawk launched their remote controlled helicopter to capture some great aerial photos of the event which are on the Joe Way facebook page.

The event also had a prize draw and prizes where donated by Lusty Glaze, Indo Board Europe, Ben Skinner and Tom Butler, Northshore surfshop, O’Neill and Surfers Against Sewage.

Volunteers had travelled from Essex, West Wittering and some of the safety team had traveled over from Argentina after being trained earlier in the year by First response GB.

Several charities also joined in at the harbour including Cornwall Hospice Care, Little Harbour, Wave Project and Surfers Against Sewage.

The event raised £4000.00 including a donation from the RNLI beach lifeguards of £400.00 which was raised from entry money from their Joe Way memorial paddle and other fundraising, Anton Page from the RNLI beach lifeguards handed over the money at the cheque presentation.

The money was raised via entrance money from the paddlers, raffle draw, food and drink sales, online donations from inspired people, balloon making, face painting, hair braiding and sponsor money.

Matt added “We had the best event to date this year and the weather along with the live music played a big part in that. Bookers had given us all the food for the burger van for the third year running and Sarah-Jane along with her husband Martin cooked it for free, this raised £803 which was amazing”.

Other traders Coastal crepes donated £209, Cornwall hospice care raised £203 with cake sales and the beer donated by Skinners Ales in the rowing club made £230. None of the businesses take any cost for products or labor so the whole event donates 100% of the takings which makes it unique.

The overall total for the Joe Way appeal is now £117,236.00 which has been raised over the last five years

If you enjoyed the event you can still DONATE ON LINE to support Joe's Appeal

Claire Way said; “We are really grateful for all the effort the Paddle team and businesses have put into this years event. Everyone worked really hard to make it a fun and safe day we are really proud of what people have achieved in Joe’s memory. Holiday makers where amazed by the community spirit that was evident all day”.

The winning team of the RNLI relay where the Carrick team and the Joe Way memorial cup was retained by North Fistral in a highly competitive battle between the RNLI beach lifeguards.

See this years Paddle photos just CLICK HERE

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