News and Events

Paddle team up for award

Matt Ways Paddle Team up for Award

Matt has been nominated for a Pride of Britain award, along with three others in the south-west. He said: "I'm just feeling really humble. It was a complete surprise and after ten years of doing this to raise money for other people and to raise awareness about Joe's story it was a pleasant surprise".

Matt said: "It was such a massive loss when Joe died that we had to do something to fill that void. This has been amazing experience and a real credit to Joe's legacy. We have always told Joe's story to inspire people as he had battled off ten superbugs and put up such a great fight which he always did with a smile. We just wanted to celebrate the positive way he dealt with everything".

Matt continued "when he died in our arms in HDU there wasn't a children's hospice available for people living in Cornwall so that was a really important part of our journey, to support the hospice and make sure it was built. Which it was and it is doing an amazing job to help families that are unfortunately in the same position that we were."

It isn't just about their family though and Matt has paid tribute to everyone involved in getting the Appeal to where it is today.

He said: "It's really exciting and it's a great opportunity to showcase the amazing way that people have supported us in Cornwall and particularly the people of Newquay and the surfing community”. "It's an amazing town and there's some amazing people who live here and I think it's great for everyone to have some recognition for everything they have done to celebrate Joe's life and be part of his story - even though he's not here anymore. As a family, we're really proud of that."

The awards, hosted by The Mirror, celebrates achievements of people in the community who 'make the world a better place'. Winners are chosen after being whittled down from thousands of nominations, and are decided by a panel of judges. This year's awards will be hosted on 31st October on ITV and be hosted at Grosvenor House in London.

Sun shines on the Joe Way Paddle for life 2014

Paddle for life 2014

This years Joe Way Paddle for life was hailed another success after an amazing turn out.

This year’s event saw a footfall of over a thousand spectators for the second year running and nearly 400 paddlers of all ages and abilities taking part in the 200m, 1km fun paddle, 1km relays and the RNLI memorial cup 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 Steel Appeal, Joe Hurworth playing on the harbour stage, followed by Blue Horyzon and then finishing in the rowing club with The Ten Bob Notes.

Matt Way said "As always the support was huge and after fearing a poor turn out whilst setting up in the rain we had the busiest event to date, I’m sure Joe would be very proud of what has been achieved in his memory".

The 1km relay was won this year by Newquay surf life saving Boys team and the SUP section was won by the Surf Sanctuary team. The highest fundraiser trophy was won by Newquay SLSC who raised over £1000.00

For more information please visit Joe Way Paddle for life website

TV Actor supports annual Paddle event

Ben Richards

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 time 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 currently patron of”.

The annual charity paddle has a great musical sunset session on the beach with Ben Hurworth, Newquay’s Steel Appeal, who are a 10 piece steel drum band, Blue Horyzon and The Ten Bob notes.

The charity fun Paddle starts at 4pm, music starts from 5pm until late.

To take part in the Joe Way Paddle for life 2014 and get up to date news go to Joe Way Paddle

GB team and Cornish surfboard company back Appeal

GB Longboard Team

The Joe Way Appeal has been gifted another paddle for life longboard after helping the British surfing team with their dream of representing Great Britain.

Ben “skindog” Skinner and Adam Griffiths along with Ben Bates (17), Raife Gaskell (17) and Britain’s number one female Claire Smail were selected to surf for SurfingGB in the first ever ISA World Longboarding Games in Peru last September.

At a fundraiser organized by the paddle team on what would have been Joe’s 10th Birthday the GB team announced a surprise gift for Joe’s Dad of a new longboard shaped by Ben Skinner owner of Skindog surfboards.

After the team returned with Skindog winning a silver medal in the world games and the rest of the team racking up enough points to rank them seventh in the world the work started on the board.

The foam blank was shaped by Skindog, the design for the artwork was tweaked by Scott Dickinson Creative who has designed all the paddle artwork and has managed the website for the last six years. The new artwork was then printed onto the special material by the Print Environment and glassed into the board by Jason Gray.