Difficult year for Wetwheels Yorkshire to provide trips out to sea

A charity which helps those with physical and mental disabilities on the Yorkshire coast says this year has been a struggle.

Wetwheels Yorkshire offers trips at sea on a specially-designed catamaran.

They weren't able to operate between March and late July because of lockdown.

Its Chair, Peter Richardson, said:

"Lockdown was pretty hard. We had a full calendar of events for the whole year planned and within the space of about a month, everything was cancelled and we didn't think we would get the boat wet this year because of Coronavirus.

"We realised that there was a growing mental health crisis, particularly with some of our younger participants who as a result of their disabilities were shielding, very much isolated and we eventually managed to put a system in place.

"We delivered ultimately half the trips we did in 2019, but they were so powerful. A lot of the people that visited us hadn't been outside of their four walls for four months and they were quite emotional journeys.

"Everything was run on an individual family basis. What that's created is a pent up demand for 2021. So we're now putting a plan in place to desperately try and satisfy the demand for next year.

"Every trip on Wetwheels brings joy to everybody; both the participants with their disabilities and their families but also to the crew as we're all excited and raring to go. It was desperately sad that many people missed out this year."