No Way Could I Walk Away - Taylor chats with Jane Cable

Honeypot is such a special charity that Billy Taylor is preparing to walk from The County Ground to The Rose Bowl to help them out. Jane Cable chats with Billy about his forthcoming charity walk.

"There was no way I could walk away" was how Billy Taylor described how he felt after his first visit to Honeypot House. So rather than walk away, on 30th September, Billy will be leaving the County Ground at Hove to walk to The Rose Bowl in aid of the local children’s charity.

Many cricketers adopt charities that are close to their hearts for personal reasons, but Billy deliberately set out to find an organisation he could help. “I wanted to do something outside of cricket, so I googled local children’s charities and Honeypot came up. I thought it fitted the bill because I’ve played cricket for both Sussex and Hampshire and they look after kids in both areas. The charity’s about letting the kids play and I’ve had the privilege of playing sport throughout my adult life.”

Honeypot works with some of the most disadvantaged children imaginable, either those who are carers themselves, or those who have no-one to care for them. “It’s an amazing charity” Billy told me “And once I had the initial meeting at Honeypot House there was no way I could walk away without doing something. They wanted their profile raising and I didn’t really know how I could do that, but I thought I’d give it a go and so far it’s gone really well.

“The walk is the first major personal fundraising event that I’ve done, but I’ve done a few media things to raise their profile, which got them a minibus paid for when a local company saw the piece on Meridian, and I spoke to TW Clark’s and they’re supplying a kitchen free of charge at Honeypot House, which is going to save them well over £10,000. Honeypot needs to raise over a £1,000,000 to fund the charity for a year, and over an above that there are always other things they need – like the kitchen for example.”

Much of the money comes from companies adopting Honeypot as a charity and the generosity of individual donors, which is why it is so important to them to have Billy on board to raise their profile. “Once you know what the charity does, you can’t walk away from it. There are many good charities out there, but this one is unique in the sense that it follows up, it doesn’t just give the children a respite holiday, it actually has aftercare. The children are amazing; they’re all either vulnerable, living in poverty, or full time carers themselves, and when they get to the House they do become a child again.”

It sounded from the way Billy was talking that he’s had some opportunity to spend time with the children. “In the winter I go up there most weekends. I try to tie in my future career after cricket, which is falconry, and take the birds of prey up to the kids. It gives them something else to think about and they love it. It also helps to train the birds to get used to different environments! When I took a tawny owl up there one of the little ones wasn’t really getting into the swing of things with the other kids and didn’t want to do anything apart from read his book. They had to really persuade him that I had a big surprise for him – he was actually reading Harry Potter and was fascinated by the owls – so he walked into the room and there was a tawny owl sat on my fist and his face lit up and he didn’t want to leave. It made his day!”

Billy has also persuaded the children to play cricket, and to his surprise initially it was the girls who were hitting the ball everywhere and didn’t want to stop. “The boys had drifted off to do something else but they saw the girls were having good fun so they came back. Next thing you know, you can’t get them away from it! I think it’s the fact that suddenly they have a grown up who wants to play with them, and they are so not used to that because the parents that they’re looking after very often simply aren’t able to play, or other kids have parents who just don’t care. They enjoy the freedom Honeypot House gives them – they’re just allowed to be kids.”

Turning to the walk itself, I asked Billy how much he hoped to raise. “I put on a figure of £10,000,” he explained “Which I thought was a little bit unrealistic, but someone anonymous has just put £5,000 on my Just Giving page so overall we reckon we’re not far off £6,000. There are a few functions during the walk which are opportunities to raise money, including a drinks reception at the Solent Hotel on the last day, and a quiz on the Thursday in the Parsons Collar pub at Whiteley, so hopefully we’re going to be close to our target.

“Every thousand pounds is one more child Honeypot can help for a year, so at the moment we can say we have six kids on the scheme. I’m always sceptical of charities asking for money when you walk along the street, I always want to know that if I give a pound, how much of that is going to the charity. I know that all the money I’m raising is going to go straight to Honeypot, and it’s nice to know exactly how many kids that money will help.”

If anyone wants to support Billy by attending an event, they should either contact the venue in advance or even simply turn up on the night. At the time of writing, Billy was hoping that as many people as possible would turn up to welcome him back to The Rose Bowl at the end of his walk at about 3.30 on the afternoon of 3rd October. Alternatively, donations can be made through Just Giving at www.justgiving.com/billytaylor1.

Visit the Honeypot website - www.honeypot.co.uk 

Details of fundraising events along the walk are as follows:

Day 1 - Tuesday 30th September – Evening Event at The Swan Hotel, Arundel, from 7.30pm
Contact the hotel for tickets: 01903 882314 

Day 3 - Thursday 2nd October – Quiz Night at The Parsons Collar, opposite the Solent Hotel and spa, Whiteley, from 7.30pm.  Contact the hotel for tickets: 01489 880035  www.solenthotel.com

Day 4 - Friday 3rd October - Join Billy as he arrives at The Rose Bowl at approximately 3.30pm

              Evening Drinks Reception at The Parsons Collar, Whiteley, from 7:30pm

 

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