Inspired by...

Eileen would have been Greg’s great Aunt (Greg’s father’s Aunt), had she not pre-deceased him.

Already a great supporter of the Foundation, having made previous very generous donations and contributed a stay at his and his villa in Portugal as an auction prize at our Dinner Dance in November 2022, Barry Glynn (Eileen’s son) made a further very significant donation to the Foundation, doing so from the proceeds of sale of a property bequeathed to him by Eileen. In so doing, Barry specifically noted: 

"Donation made in loving memory of Eileen Glynn (long departed) who would have been an avid supporter of the work of the Foundation had she still been with us. As was her way, always...Love to all x"

Thank you , Barry, for honouring both Eileen and Greg in this way and for your continuing generosity assisting the Foundation to continue its work.

Helen Conway 100 mile cycle Ride

During June 2023, Greg’s first cousin once removed (ie his father’s cousin!) undertook to cycle 100 miles to raise funds for the Foundation.

Despite an illness that delayed the start of her rides and battling the after-effects of the illness, plus suffering (particularly on hill climbs) with neck pain caused by an injury occasioned in a car accident some years ago, Helen overcame all hurdles, even carrying on with the challenge through the pain of “sore bits” (as to which we specifically requested that we be provided with no further information!).

On a couple of the legs of the ride, she was accompanied by her son, Tom, who can be seen with Helen in the picture to the right, recovering following the completion of part of one leg with a pint of diet coke!

Thank you, Helen (and Tom) for this initiative and for the fantastic £1,350 which was raised through these efforts, every penny of which will go towards one of the projects supported by the Foundation.

bethany’s London to Brighton Ride

In September 2022, Bethany Bradley took part in the London to Brighton Cycle Ride and raised money for the Foundation through sponsorship.

By her own admission, she wouldn’t previously have been known as a cyclist, her usual mode of transport being walking (to the nearest bar or pub!). The challenge was, therefore, made even harder given the number of pubs she would have to ride past and resist entering during her ride!

But she made it…….and was even smiling as she crossed the finish line!

(You can tell which one is Bethany (dressed in all black) thanks to the screaming of her supporters as she finished!)

Bethany raised an incredible £1,450 (including Gift Aid), every penny of which will be put towards one of the Foundation’s Acts of Good.

Thank you Bethany from all of us at The Gregory Mills Foundation. You can now revert to your more usual mode of transport to your more usual destination!

Dinner Dance at Stock brook Manor 2022

12 November 2022

The twice postponed (thanks to the pandemic) Dinner Dance took place on 12 November 2022, again at Stock Brook Manor Golf & Country Club, attended by 180 friends and family.

The evening started with a drinks reception in The Garden Room before moving upstairs to the Main Ballroom, the decoration of which had been added to, through the efforts of the Bennett family, with “Foundation red” and white balloons and table decoration, a lapel pin (sourced by Ashleigh) for each guest bearing the Foundation logo of a red dragonfly.

Added to the table were a small booklet put together by Karine and Carole outlining the Foundation’s work, a booklet of the auction items and another booklet of the silent auction items. This year, two posters also were produced to give a visual manifestation of some of the projects in which the Foundation is involved and some of the young people who have supported the Foundation with their fundraising over the last couple of years.

After introductions and welcome speeches from Ashleigh, Karine, and Chris (which included the introduction of the young fundraisers who have supported the Foundation: JT, (Greg’s brother) Alicia and Bethany), the guests were treated to a three course dinner with wine before the fun began!

A game of “Heads & Tails” saw Marianne Mills (one of Greg’s grandmothers) make it into the semi-final, only to lose out to (and lose the magnum of champagne to) Andrew Webb who at least, having defeated the people’s choice popular octogenarian, proceeded to share his winnings with those on his table!

The raffle (administered by Ashleigh, but with thanks to Katherine Lunn and her young helpers who went table to table selling the tickets) and the auction then followed.

The winning bids for the auction went to:

• 5 nights at a 17th Century Cottage in Cornwall : Jim Fuller (with thanks to Tony & Michelle Bennett)

• Week at a chalet in Switzerland : Nassif BouMalhab (by telephone bidding from Canada!) (with thanks to Tim and Leonie Tovell)

• Week at a villa in The Algarve: Grace  Balmford (with thanks to Barry & Sue Glynn)

• 2 nights half board at a hotel in Wales : Steve Glynn (with thanks to Eirlys Riewer and her brother Dewi Gwynne and his wife Nicole)

The silent auction (the management of arrangements for which were undertaken by Carole) winning bidders were then advised of their “wins” – too many to mention here!

Please see this link to the brochures for the auction and the silent auction for further details of the auctioned items:

• Silent Auction Brochure

• Live Auction Items Brochure

A massive thank you from all of us at the Foundation to everyone who donated raffle prizes (again, too many of them to mention), but particular thanks to the donors of the auction prizes; and to Sean Balmford, as auctioneer, and Tony Bennett, as bidder spotter, for running the auction.

Throughout the evening, as he had done at the last Foundation Dinner, Nigel Mould was photographing guests and, as he did before, has very kindly donated all the profits from the evening to the Foundation. Thank you, Nigel, for your generosity. So to those of you who attended and have not yet done so, please check out the photos and place your orders for prints here:

https://www.njmphoto.com/gm

And then there was dancing (the dance floor was packed all night) and yet further drinking (including some surprising participants in doing shots – Norma (another of Greg’s grandmothers), we are talking about you!).

A huge thank you goes (yet again!) to Ashleigh for her drive in pushing forward with this event, but also (yet again!) to her parents, Tony and Michelle. Without them, this event would not have happened

Speaking for the Trustees of The Foundation, we all had a fantastic evening and everyone we have spoken to did, as well. A sure sign that an evening has gone well is when the time flies by…….and it certainly did. Before we knew it, it was 1am and the evening had drawn to a close.

At the time of writing, we have yet to finalise how much money was raised which will to go towards the Acts of Good of The Gregory Mills Foundation. However, current indications are that, through the kindness and generosity of all involved, all who attended and the donations separately made by those who were unable to attend, we are looking at having raised an amazing sum of about 2.5 times the amount we raised at the last Dinner Dance in 2019.

A massive and heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in the planning and execution of the event and to all who contributed to the financial success of the event by donating and digging deep for the raffle, the silent auction and the auction. We promise to use the funds wisely and 100% of the money raised will go to the projects we support. We take nothing for admin, travel and other expenses, all of which continues to come out of our own pockets

ALEX MOVES ONTO BRITISH FORMULA 3

As he had done when driving in the British Formula 4 championship, Alex again took his friend with him on the race track!

Following his success in the Formula 4 category (2nd in the Rookie category in 2019; and 4th overall in 2020 with 3 wins, 5 other podiums and 2 pole positions), Alex moved onto GB3 racing in 2021. He was only able to compete in 9 races in the 2021 season but took 3 podiums from those 9 races.

In 2022 he competed again in the GB3 category driving for Arden Motorsport, for which team he previously had driven in Formula 4 and in his earlier GB3 races.

Yet again, Alex honoured the memory of his friend by sporting the Gregory Mills Foundation logo as a decal on his car. It was a tough year for our young friend, but he finished the season on a high with a podium 3rd place finish in the final race of the season. Good luck next year, Alex. We will be following your progress!

Thank you, Alex (and your parents, Giles and Janine) for this continuing and very touching tribute to your friend.

Euros Sweepstake

During The Euros 2020 (delayed to 2021 because of Covid), Greg’s brother, JT (see Hunar Ghar pages of this website for JT’s trip with Chris to Rajasthan to meet the staff and pupils of the school), had the idea to run a sweepstake for friends and family. His suggestion was that participants make a donation of whatever amount they wished to The Foundation and JT then funded the prizes for first, second and third place winners.

The draw took place under the watchful gaze of the wholly impartial Kaitlyn (JT’s wife) who videoed the draw so that all could be assured of fair play.

As there was no third/fourth place playoff between Spain and Denmark, the Rules established by JT at the outset were that third place would be decided by which team had the best tournament goal difference of the two losing semi-finalists.

The winners, the teams they drew and the prizes were:

First: Minnie Wallington  - Italy : 2 x Novo 7 Star Experience movie tickets

Second: Tim Tovell – England : Virgin Megastore Gift Card

Third:  Chris - Spain (honestly, not a fix!) : Deliveroo Gift Card

Thank you to all who took part and donated so generously. At the time of writing, a few payments are still to come in, but the sweepstake has raised about £1,000 for The Foundation, which will help feed many hungry young mouths. Thanks JT for arranging this. Just a shame (as an Englishman writing this) that it didn’t “come home”!

Next (and definitely coming home) : The Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022.

Alicia’s Tandem Skydive

For a long time Alicia, a friend of one our Trustees, Ashleigh, had wanted to do a skydive and was gifted one for her 21st birthday. She very kindly agreed to use the jump to raise some money for The Gregory Mills Foundation by seeking sponsorship for her jump, which took place on 7 August 2020.

We are delighted to report that, despite a rather ungraceful landing, she survived in one piece! Her offer to do this for The Foundation could not have come at a better time for us because, due to Covid-19, we were forced to postpone our second annual fundraising dinner and dance to November 2021.

Her employers (Tradeweb) made a very generous donation of £800 and, with Gift Aid tax relief, the total Alicia raised was an amazing £5,400.

Heartfelt thanks from all of us at The Gregory Mills Foundation to Alicia, Tradeweb and to everyone who sponsored Alicia through her Just Giving page.

Update on Formula 4 Championship

Just a quick update on Greg’s friend Alex Connor who is now in his second year racing in the British Formula 4 championship.

The start of this year’s championship was delayed by COVID, but got underway on 1 August 2020 and will end on 26 November 2020.

At the time of writing in early September 2020, Alex is currently in third place in the championship after 12 races and with 14 races still remaining in the season. Yet again we are touched that Alex remembers his friend, Greg, by again racing this year with the Gregory Mills Foundation logo on his car.

Good luck for the rest of the season, Alex!

As he had being doing all season in the British F4, Alex again remembered his mate Greg and his car carried the Foundation decal (albeit, due to printing problems, without the dragonfly logo!).  Thanks Alex (and his parents, Giles and Janine) for this continued and very touching tribute to your friend.

Despite driving in a different car, with a different powertrain and set up to the car he had been driving in the UK with Arden all year, Alex qualified 4th on the grid for both races. In race 1 on Saturday, Alex finished with a podium position 3rd, going on to win race 2 on the Sunday – his first race win in a Formula 4 race.

What a way to cap a successful first year in F4. An amazing achievement!

Congratulations, Alex, from all of us at GMF!

Dinner Dance at Stock brook Manor, Essex

19 October 2019

Following on from the success of the Quiz Night organised by Ashleigh (with significant input from Chelle and other family members), Ashleigh and Chelle again rallied friends and family to organise a fund raising black tie Dinner Dance evening.

A drinks reception was followed by welcome addresses by Ashleigh and Karine. Please click here to read Karine’s speech in full.

Attendees enjoyed a three course meal, raffle, auction and the beautiful singing (both pre and post dinner) of Becky  Silverman (singing for the first time in front of family and friends), accompanied by Claire Habbershaw on the keyboard; and then a DJ and dancing until gone 1am.

The Trustees want to express our sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone who made the event possible. We won’t repeat all those names here, other than particularly to thank Ashleigh and Chelle, without whom this event would never have happened; Rebecca, Ashleigh and Tony for the beautiful idea of producing the dragonfly bracelets (the dragonfly being the Foundation logo, the inspiration for which can be found on the Foundation website) and the red flower seeds which, if planted now, will bloom around the time of Greg’s birthday; the many donors of raffle prizes; and all the staff of Stock Brook Manor for all their hard work both in preparation and on the night.

Those who were successful in their bidding for the auction items (and the donors of those items) were:

• Chiropractor : Jo Balmford (with thanks to Tom Gibbons)

• Stay at November Cottage : Sean and Jo Balmford (with thanks to the Bennett Family)

• Stay at Spanish holiday home : Mark Ellis (with thanks to Tony Parsons and Sam New)

• Martin Johnson, England World Cup Winners 2003 memorabilia : Barry Glynn (with thanks to Timothy Tovell)

• Signed West Ham Legends shirt : Stuart Gibbons (with thanks to West Ham legend Tony Gale and special thanks to Richard Johnson, ex Watford, Queens Park Rangers and Australia International footballer, and most importantly Dad of AJ’s schoolmate Ed who obtained this for the Gregory Mills Foundation) 

• Gym membership : Danny Dixon (with thanks to Stock Brook Manor)

• Day and night at Newmarket races including table for 4 with food and wine; and evening concert : Mark Ellis (with thanks to Barry Stewart and Family)

• 4-ball round of golf : Steve Glynn (with thanks to Stock Brook Manor)

Thank you to all our donors of auction items and to our successful bidders (and those who took part in the bidding) for their additional contributions made in this way.

Nigel Mould was our photographer for the evening who gave his time for free and all profits made from the ordering of prints of the photos generously will be given by Nigel to the Foundation:

www.njmphoto.com Click on client gallery and password is:  gregorymills

Everyone we have spoken with enjoyed the event, as did we……even those who were suffering a bit the next morning!

Funds are still coming in, but the total raised on the evening is in excess of £10,000, which is fantastic!

And so, in addition to our thanks to those who made the event possible, Karine and I (and our additional Trustees, Rebecca, Ashleigh and Carole, as well as our other Board members, JT, Michael and Nassif) would like to thank all who attended  for their generosity. 

All donations we receive go towards one of the projects in which we are involved or to which we contribute in the name of Greg and his Foundation. All costs associated with running the Foundation, including our travel costs to check out potential projects and follow up after we have contributed, as well as the majority of the funding of the projects in which we have been involved todate, are paid from our own pockets. We shall continue personally to fund our obligations for the children we already sponsor and the sports and food programmes that we support.

All who are kind enough to donate can be assured that their donations will be used wisely and will directly benefit causes we support (and not go into the big black hole of administration costs!) therefore allowing us to support yet further worthy causes.

We hope that everyone who attended enjoyed the evening as much as we did. 

Ashleigh already is talking about planning another event for next year!

acts of Good Around the World

Greg’s cousin, Grace, ran the London Marathon for the first time last year and raised funds for two causes, one of which was our Foundation. Thanks, Grace!

It seems that she (like her father) is now addicted to endurance sport as she ran it again this year and, having vowed not to do it again, within days of completing it for the second time, had applied to do it again next year!

Greg’s Aunt, Chelle (who heavily supported Ashleigh in the arrangements for last year’s quiz night and is doing so again for this year’s dinner dance), let it be known where she works that she is involved with the Foundation and a colleague then offered her 200 tickets to the Fleetwood Mac Wembley Stadium concert in June, for her to sell to raise funds. Initially it was thought that she may be able to sell a couple of dozen, but the take-up by family, friends and colleagues was enormous and all 200 tickets were sold, resulting in a considerable donation to the Foundation.

A huge thank you to Chelle and her colleague, Paul, for this most unexpected contribution.

Caleb and Cordelia, friends of Karine & Chris, were married in the Summer of 2018 and, instead of wedding presents, asked their friends and family to make donations to support two worthy causes, one of which being The Gregory Mills Foundation.

Thank you both for your beautiful thought and thank you to all their family and friends who gave so generously to the two causes.

The Chow Family - reference has been made elsewhere to the funds provided through the generosity of the Chow Family and their young son, Gridell (who donated his birthday money and is pictured below with his sister, Logan, and Chris) for the funding of two Reverse Osmosis Water Systems, donations being made in the names of Charlie’s sister, Sandy, and the elderly lady Fu Tian Yun.

The Riewer Family Through the very generous donation and ongoing commitment to fund the education of more children by Philippe, Eirlys, Madryn and Brianne, a further 5 children now have sponsorship to see them through their education and, like all others sponsored by the Foundation, each will have a birthday cake on their birthday for sharing with their family.

We, Shahla and particularly the children are hugely grateful for their support and commitment. 

As with all funds which we are blessed to receive, 100% goes to the “acts of good” and all costs associated with running the Foundation and investigation of the causes which we consider supporting, including follow-up visits, are met from the pockets of Karine & Chris.

Waad and Rokshana

Mention is made elsewhere of the food distribution arranged by our friend Waad and her daughter Rokshana and the food distribution to the manual labourers and security personnel in the area in which they live, in memory and honour of Greg.

Thank you for this touching initiative and act of good.

Alek and Adam

The boys gathered together and delivered to Karine for onward delivery to Mother Miracle School on her visit earlier this year, a dozen tennis rackets and associated tennis equipment.

Tennis is another sport introduced by Shahla to the school and which was a sport played by Greg from the age of 3. Thanks, boys! Your donation will be much appreciated by the kids.

Alex Connor IN the British F4

Greg’s mate, Alex Connor, took a big step forward in his racing career following a successful debut test in British F4 at Croft racing circuit this summer.

During his testing the week of 21-28 October 2018, as he had done this time last year in his kart racing at the Dubai Autodrome Kart Track, Alex remembered his friend, Greg, with a special decal on his F4 car.

The championship is designed as a relatively low-cost entrance to single-seater motorsport and is aimed at young racing drivers moving up from karting. Not only was it Alex’s first test in a British F4 car, it was the first time he had driven a car of any kind.

However, the 14-year-old took the challenge in his stride and his graduation from karting couldn’t have got off to a better start, with Alex impressing during two days of testing in the UK at the end of September. He was adapting to the car a lot quicker than usual and, given he had never been in a car before, his lap times were reported to be very impressive.

For more detail, please see the following link to the Young Racing Drivers Academy website. 

https://www.yrda.co.uk/news/alex-connor-shines-on-british-f4-test-debut

And for a video of one of Alex’s laps of the Angelsey circuit, please see this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9TyZRLxQUU

It's all about Friends & Family

Quiz Night, 4 May 2018

Thank you to all of you for being here tonight. To Ashleigh, for putting this event together spontaneously and making it so special. For everyone who helped the set up of the evening, for the prizes, the quiz master, the skittles girl and the A team for the tombola tickets.

In his lifetime with us, Greg loved many things and one thing that meant the world to him was his families, friends and buddies, sharing good times, playing games having a laugh and having fun together. Tonight all of you are making it just as he loved it, in its true spirit and to support an altruistic project in his name with his awesome cousins, family and their friends. Its a giant thank you we express to all of you from the bottom of our heart.

For you to understand a bit better, the areas of work of the foundation and where we started, this is what inspired the work we do in Greg’s name.

Most of the projects started in India. Greg and I travelled to India in 2015, as part of his educative adventure and an adventurous trip to explore life, cultures from a very different scope of experiences, sitting with our rickhshaw drivers for their breakfast break, playing cricket at the park with the kids from the neighborhood, exploring the giant kitchen of the Sikh temple seating with the cooks and passing dishes for the morning breakfast of students and workers, celebrating Diwali with families and firecrackers, not speaking the same language, having a life that is ever so different and yet sharing good times together. All these conversations amongst many others on how we can do good in the simplest manner, how we can connect beyond our differences and learn from it…how smiles are so priceless - these are at the core of the work of the foundation

Part of the last term of Greg’s educative adventure we embarked on in 2015, was to work on a series of contributive projects from which G and his buddies could draw skills, explore concepts and get some exposure while learning important values and matters of today’s world, working around areas of passions and interests - things he loved like food and sports, nature, animals, dogs, giant turtles, dolphins, moose … and the adventure of exploring the underwater world and its weird, beautiful shapes, colors and species. The curriculum was all set for January, for a new learning and contributive adventure with his enthusiastic buddies. So we decided that we will carry on turning this work into an altruistic project in his name as a legacy of a life adventurer who loved to see everyone happy and cared for, having an awesome time.

Karting: A Story of Kinship

Alex Connor, one of Greg’s close friends since birth (their parents met at ante-natal classes!), has been karting for several years and is making a name for himself in the very competitive world of kart racing. In the 2015/16 season, he was the UAE X30 Cadet Champion and the UAE MicroMax Vice-Champion; and in the 2016 SWS Junior Cup World Finals finished in 3rd place. He currently drives with the Energy Dubai Racing Team.

During the weekend of the anniversary of Greg’s passing, Alex wanted to do something in memory of his friend and so he decided that he would produce and apply to his kart, Gregory Mills Foundation decals : the Monkey and Dragon logo on the nose of his kart; and the Red Dragonfly and Gregory Mills Foundation logo on the side pods and front wings.

On the first day of the weekend of racing, during the qualifying rounds, the set-up of his kart was affecting handling and despite working with his mechanic to adjust the set-up and some brave and aggressive driving, he was unable to secure a podium finish in the final race of the day. But on day two, things came together much better for Alex and he finished in a very creditable third place, the third place trophy for which he immediately dedicated to Greg’s memory.

He is a remarkable young talent. To learn more about Alex see:

www.alexconnorracing.com

Facebook.com > alexconnorracing