Nick Skelton CBE appointed Honorary Ambassador for charity Revitalise
Tuesday 14 March 2017
Nick Skelton CBE, who won Individual Gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for Showjumping, has today been announced as the latest Honorary Ambassador for the innovative disabled people’s charity Revitalise.
The charity, which provides much-needed respite holidays for disabled people and carers at three accessible UK centres, offered the position to Nick due to his incredible showjumping achievements (culminating in an individual showjumping gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics) and his personal experience of disability caused by a neck injury in 2000, from which Nick subsequently made a full recovery.
Nick has had a long and very successful career in equestrianism and received an OBE for services to equestrian sport in 2012. Later, Nick won a team showjumping gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics, and surpassed this with individual gold in Rio four years later - making him the oldest British Olympic gold medallist since 1908. For this, and in recognition of his continued service to equestrian sport, Nick was elevated to a CBE.
Nick joins Team GB Paralympians and Boccia medallists Dan Bentley and David Smith MBE – a fellow Rio 2016 Olympic Games gold-medallist and now the joint most successful British Boccia player in history – as an Honorary Ambassador of Revitalise. The charity is also proud to count on the support of Dames Judi Dench and Esther Rantzen as well as Arthur Smith among its Vice Presidents.
Revitalise Chief Executive Chris Simmonds commented:
“Nick’s incredible sporting career certainly attracted our attention, but what really stood out for us was his amazing recovery from a broken neck which could very easily have ended his career.
“For this indomitable spirit and all the good work he does behind the scenes for the rehabilitation of injured equestrians, we felt Nick was a really obvious choice for us.
“Here at Revitalise we have a special programme supporting people recovering from potentially life-changing spinal injuries at our centre in Southport. We are confident that Nick will be of huge assistance in raising awareness about this important aspect of our work.
“We are proud to announce Nick as our newest Ambassador and look forward to working with him in the future.
Commenting on his appointment, Nick Skelton MBE said:
“I’m delighted to become an Honorary Ambassador for Revitalise and I’m looking forward to helping the charity continue its work and raise its public profile.
“I fully support Revitalise’s mission to provide much-needed respite holidays for disabled people and carers. I was also very interested to hear that Revitalise supports people who are recovering from spinal injuries at its Sandpipers centre, since this is an issue that’s very close to my heart.
“I have first-hand experience of a spinal injury, from which I was lucky enough to make a full recovery, so I really hope my own experience has given me some valuable insights which will prove useful to Revitalise.”
Revitalise is a national charity providing respite holidays for disabled people and carers at three accessible centres in Chigwell in Essex, Southampton and Southport, with 24-hour nurse-led care on-call, personal support and a range of accessible excursions, activities and entertainment.
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