Today Williams Racing were in attendance that embraces a very noble cause. Named after Frank Williams, the Frank Williams Academy, supported by the Spinal Injuries Association – was founded to help all the people who are struggling with spinal cord injuries.
Photo credit: Williams Racing
The SIA has been Williams’s Official Charity since 2015, and Claire Williams was nominated Vice President in 2016.
The association it’s an incredible organisation that supports over 50,000 people affected by spinal cord injury and guides them and their families through their complex journey, by giving them both medical and emotional support.
A fundraiser was also organised, with the aim of raising £1.5m to help patients and support research in the early stages of the association.
The charity’s patron HRH The Princess Royal, Williams Racing Board members Matthew Savage and James Matthews, Team Principal James Vowles, and of course Claire Williams, attended today’s launch at the Hoare Memorial Hall in Westminster.
She opened up about her father’s injury back in 1986 that made him tetraplegic and on how, despite that, he managed to live his life to the fullest:
“My father lived the most extraordinary life, not least as one of the most successful Team Principals in the history of the sport and doing so from a wheelchair as a tetraplegic for the greater part of it.
“His tenacity in the face of this adversity was just one of the many things that made him such an inspiration to many while he was alive,” the SIA Vice President said.
“Following his death, I wanted to do something to continue that legacy, and the Frank Williams Academy couldn’t be a more fitting tribute.
“The work that the Academy will do will provide potentially life changing care for spinal cord injured people, just as the SIA did for my dad. With that support, the bounds of possibility are endless,” she concluded.
