One of the newest members of the Jessie May family, Charlotte has only been a part of the team for almost 5 months but has truly hit the ground running.
Tell us a bit about your role at Jessie May
I’m the Community Engagement Fundraising Officer, it’s quite a broad role, but I would say that there are 3 main sections that I cover.
I look after all of the events that we can offer our supporters; from the Bath Half and London Marathon, to our Jessie May Sky Dive Day that we’re holding in July. We’re about to launch our first Jessie May led event this year (watch this space), with more planned to come! We’re also working on providing some overseas challenges next year for the more adventurous and daring of our supporters!
A big part of my work is focussed on community engagement and community fundraisers, and building relationships with the different individuals and community groups that support us; schools and colleges, church groups, women’s institutes and rotaries are just a few. I reach out to them and offer support and guidance with their fundraising.
Then we’ve got our lovely team of volunteers – they support us by offering their time and skill. This may be attending and cheering at events, giving talks and presentations, collecting cheques on our behalf and helping us to facilitate events.
We are currently in the early stages of recruiting a new bank of Jessie May volunteers, so if you’d be interested in signing up please do get in touch.
Describe a standout day you’ve had since you’ve been at Jessie May
This is quite a tricky one as I’ve not been here very long, and every day is very different. One day you could be having a really exciting conversation with someone who’s running the London Marathon and have already smashed their fundraising goal, and the next I could be speaking with a grandparent who’s been personally impacted by Jessie May and wants to play their part.
At the end of my first week I went all guns blazing and attended my first Jessie May event at the Sodbury Slog 2021. It was so amazing to just be able to get stuck in, I was able to meet with our 10 runners at the beginning of the race and help to make them feel truly part of a team.
How do you think your colleagues would describe you?
I would hope that they would describe me as energetic, passionate and a bit ‘out there’ – in a good way!
I like to think people would see me as being very open and warm, that the team know that they can come and talk to me about anything.
If you could live in any fictional place, where would it be?
I’d love to go to The Shire from Lord of the Rings, the hobbits seem to have a nice simple life, they’ve got connection to the outside and you never know when the next adventure may come along.
Otherwise it would be anywhere under the sea, like The Little Mermaid.
Where is home for you?
I’ve been around so much in my life, but now that I’ve settled where I am I think I’m most at ‘home’ than I’ve ever been.
No matter where I go, I always gravitate back to where my family is based in Somerset/Bristol.
Can you tell us about a book/tv show/film that’s stuck with you?
The recent BBC show, This is Going to Hurt, for anyone who’s watched it will understand why. If you haven’t seen it, I’d definitely check it out, and the original book by Adam Kay.
I’ve also recently just finished a book called ‘The Pants of Perspective’ by Anna McNuff telling her 3,000km solo journey running between the South to the North of New Zealand, and it follows her inspirational challenge. I always find it fascinating how much our bodies can be put through.
Who was a role model/your biggest influence growing up?
I definitely always looked up to my parents. They both retrained when we were growing up, my Dad went through the police force and trained for all his Sergeant’s exams. I remember when I was about 7 he went out for a run really early and nearly passed out, and I remember just being in awe as to what he was putting himself through to achieve what he wanted to.
When we moved back to Somerset my Mum retrained as a teacher, and I now realise just how hard that must have been for her to do that while still trying to still raise her children.
I made the decision to change career paths and retrained a bit later on in life, and I don’t think I would’ve been able to do that without having seen them do it themselves.
After the restrictions over the last 2 years, what’s something you’d like to do/achieve this year?
I can’t wait to be able to meet the whole of the Jessie May team and our supporters and volunteers in person, which is something we’ve not been able to for quite some time.
I also can’t wait to just be able to freely explore again. We’re hoping to do another tour on the motorbike (something like the Scotland 500) hopefully, which will be lovely if the weather continues as it is!
What would you like to say to the people who continue to support Jessie May year after year?
Keep doing what you’re doing! We can’t function without you. I’m already amazed by everything you all do, and the passion and creativity you all show. Your commitment to doing something really special for us is inspiring and makes such a difference.
Thank You!
Stay tuned for the next entry in March, or to find out more about our Team today, head over to our Meet the Team page right here on our website.
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