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The 2010 ‘PROPS’ Awards Lunch Raises over £425,000 for Variety Club’s Easy Riders Wheelchair Programme

Tuesday, 18th May saw the Property Industry converge on the London Hilton Park Lane for the 19th Annual Variety Club Property Awards Lunch. Hundreds of thousands of pounds were raised for the Easy Riders Wheelchairs Programme thanks to the generosity of those in attendance, those that sponsored awards, Aviva the event sponsor and the support of The Estates Gazette.

Bellagio Time donated some fabulous raffle prizes from there various collections in order to enable the ‘Props’ to raise funds on the day.

The ceremony was presided over by Omid Djalili and the awards themselves were presented by Miss World herself. With accolades going for a range of categories including the Lifetime Achievement Award, Deal of the Year and Young Property Person of the Year, everyone who was anyone in the industry was there.

Variety Club Easy Riders Ambassador Matt King spoke movingly about his own experiences of the programme and the achievements that it had allowed him to accomplish.

At 17 years old, just 20 seconds into his first professional Rugby match, Matt was left paralysed from the neck down. The Variety Club Easy Riders Wheelchair Programme provided Matt with a specialist electric wheelchair which has allowed him to go on to do incredible things.

Matt recently graduated from Hertfordshire University, where he achieved a first class honours degree in Law, is about to start at leading law firm Stewarts Law, was the first quadriplegic to complete the New York marathon and since his accident, has never let his disability get in the way of doing exactly what he wants to do.

“The Variety Club came in and helped fund my wheelchair that I’m using now. The major impact it has had is just enabling me to try and live a normal life and just do normal things like walk my dogs, go to the park and I’ve just finished my law degree…If The Variety Club hadn’t stepped in I don’t think I would have been able to achieve any of these goals.” Matt King

Once Matt had spoken about his own experiences, he reminded everyone that whilst he had been lucky, there were hundreds of thousands of children who still couldn’t achieve their dreams, and that everybody in the room could do something to help.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds were raised and hundreds of specialist Easy Riders Wheelchairs were bought to give freedom, independence and hope to children across the UK.