The Tour Players Foundation, the charitable foundation of The European Tour and its Members, has selected Sebastian’s Action Trust as the designated local charity for this year’s BMW PGA Championship, which takes place at Wentworth Club next week.
The Sunninghill-based charity was formed in the memory of Sebastian Gates, who attended the same school as several of the Tour’s Surrey-based Members’ children, including South African Retief Goosen and England’s Anthony Wall.
Sadly, Sebastian passed away on Christmas Eve 2003 aged just nine after a two-and-a-half year battle with a rare form of childhood cancer, known as a Wilms’ tumour. In his short life Sebastian underwent a stem-cell transplant, scores of chemotherapy courses and radiotherapy, but always faced his challenges with remarkable courage and a maturity which belied his years.
Shortly before he died, Sebastian came up with the idea of creating a holiday respite house for children with life-threatening or life-limiting illnesses, where they could enjoy a break with family and friends in a purpose-built facility, all free of charge. Sebastian himself began raising funds for the project, and his mother Jane Gates has continued to do so through the Trust.
A site in the picturesque Hampshire village of North Waltham was generously donated to the Trust by a local landowner and building work will begin in June. When completed, the house will include two four-bedroom, self-catering apartments – thereby allowing two families to stay at any one time – as well as communal leisure facilities featuring an indoor pool and spa, games room, home cinema, music room, library and multi-sensory room.
Jane Gates, Sebastian’s mother and Director of the Trust, said: “We are both delighted and honoured to have been selected by the Tour Players Foundation as the local charity for the BMW PGA Championship. This is a very exciting year for us, as we will see our unique respite holiday house become a reality – so there couldn’t be a better time to have the prestige associated with this tournament. We’re enormously grateful to the Tour Players Foundation for choosing to promote our cause and, on behalf of the countless families who benefit from the support we offer, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks.”
Sebastian’s Action Trust will benefit from various fundraising activities during the week of the BMW PGA Championship, in which Goosen and Wall are both competing.
Mark Roe, Chairman of The Tour Players Foundation, said: “The Trustees and I heard of the tremendous work the Trust does in memory of Sebastian, and how well supported the charity is by European Tour Members and Staff and their families. So that, coupled with the difference our support could make to a small local charity, meant it was a natural choice to appoint them the chosen charity of the BMW PGA Championship. We hope everyone during the week will get behind such a great cause.”
To find out more information about the Trust, please visit their websitehere. Alternatively, if you would like to make a donation, please clickhere.
