News

Foundation support Wings for Life and confirms Festival passenger rides

Reading, UK, June 24, 2011. Hours before a cornucopia of motor racing extravaganza goes under the hammer at the Richard Burns Foundation Summer Dinner at Salon Privé this evening, the charity confirmed it would be supporting Wings for Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation as the official fund-raising partner to the Goodwood Festival of Speed in early July.

Wings for Life is a spinal cord research charity founded in 2004 by Red Bull CEO Dietrich Mateschitz and the two-time motocross world champion Heinz Kinigadner. It is devoted to finding a cure for spinal cord injury. By funding promising medical research projects to regenerate the injured spinal cord, Wings for Life accelerates scientific and clinical progress towards a cure for spinal cord injury.

As official fund-raising partner to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Richard Burns Foundation manages the on-event promotion and logistics of collecting and cash-managing the charitable donations made by hundreds of thousands of spectators that attend one of the jewels in the British sporting calendar. It is the Foundation’s responsibility to mobilise the motor sport community to support and contribute to worthy causes nominated by the Festival organisers.

The Richard Burns Foundation also confirmed that at tonight’s gala celebration of the 10th anniversary of Richard’s 2001 World Rally title, a number of auctions for passengers to experience the ‘hill’ at Goodwood first hand would go under the hammer together with an impressive array of other motor sport ephemera, collectibles and money-can't-buy experiences kindly donated by Formula One and World Rally Teams.

As a newly confirmed Patron of the Richard Burns Foundation, British Rally ace and double national champion, Guy Wilkes confirmed that he would personally donate a ride in his Peugeot 207 S2000 Evolution along the world-famous Goodwood hillclimb during the Festival weekend.

“It’s a great honour to be asked to be a patron of the Richard Burns Foundation, and in this tenth anniversary year of his greatest achievement, I did think how I could best contribute to the cause and logically, it is by doing what comes naturally, by driving a rally car. But the opportunity to share it with a charity donor at the Festival of Speed makes sense all round.”

For those not able to bid for Guy’s kind donation at Salon Privé tonight, a number of other Festival of Speed passenger rides which will be promoted via text to win competitions on the Foundation’s website at www.richardburnsfoundation.com.

Funds raised at Salon Privé will be used to support a revised and recently launched mission to help the Brain & Spine Foundation create a nationwide network of brain centres in the UK in Richard’s name.

Inspired by the leadership of Richard’s surgeon, Peter J Hamlyn, MB BS, BSc, MD, FRCS, FISM, who is also the Chairman of the Brain & Spine Foundation, Richard’s charity will help to address the startling lack of neurological provision in the UK.

Given the scale & range of neuro injury and illness and the scarcity of specialist practitioners, the Richard Burns Foundation has committed its charitable endeavour to support the Brain & Spine Foundation to help close this resourcing gap. The ambition is to fund the first hospital-based Brain Centre, where members of public can access walk-in support and advice from specialist neurological nurses who can provide guidance for the array of neurological conditions from MS, Motor Neurone Disease & Schizophrenia to Autism and stroke, to name but a few.

Dependent on the success of this venture, the Richard Burns Foundation is committed to supporting the Brain & Spine Foundation to spread the Brain Centre project nationally.

Ten Startling Facts About Neurological illness & injury in the UK

More people die or are left severely disabled by neurological disorders than either heart disease or cancer.

Brain tumours affect 5,000 people every year in the UK and are the commonest solid cancer to affect children.

The range of neurological disorders affecting the brain is almost endless and affect us in vitro (Spina Bifida, neural tube defect) to babies and young children (Autism, Meningitis) to young adult (Multiple Sclerosis, Motor Neurone disease) all the way through to to later life (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s).

Head injury is the biggest killer of teenagers and young males into their mid-20’s in the UK (more than appendicitis or broken bones) and 12% of head injuries result from sporting activity.

The overwhelming majority of head-injured patients – around 85% - will NOT benefit from seeing a specialist neurologist. Most will be treated by orthopaedic surgeons.

For 95% of head injured patients, the so-called ‘golden hour’ (the 60 minutes during which specialist intervention can significantly affect outcomes) is spent in the back of an ambulance.

You would be twice as likely to wake up in a hospital bed with a brain surgeon at the end of your bed in Greece, Portugal or Spain than you would in the UK.

Of 20,000 consultant specialists in the UK, there are just 140 neurosurgeons. There are NINE TIMES more specialists per head of population in Japan than the UK.

One in ten head injured patients in the UK die due to mishandling in hospital or during transportation to specialist neuro units.

Despite this paucity of provision, stroke victims occupy 11% of all hospital beds. Stroke will affect 1 in ten of us.

Find out more from the Brain & Spine Foundation at: www.brainandspine.org.uk

Find out more about the Richard Burns Foundation at: http://www.richardburnsfoundation.com

Find out more about Wings for Life at: www.wingsforlife.com