Wearside Roller Derby and 4 Louis!

11 kilometres, a lot of wheels, and (hopefully) heaps of cash for bereaved families.

Last year, Wearside Roller Derby raised more than £730 for charity by skating from South Shields Pier to Roker Pier, and now that our feet have just about recovered, we’re ready to do it again.

On Sunday, August 24th, 2025, Wearside Roller Derby will once again be tackling the seven-mile/11 km route between two of our region’s most scenic piers to drum up vital funds for local charity 4 Louis and for the team. https://4louis.co.uk/

For every £1 we raise, we will donate 50p to 4 Louis to help fund the heartfelt work they do. Any funds raised over our target will continue to be shared this way.

Our first fundraising skate, held in August 2024, generated over £1,400, which was split between the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) and the team itself. We were joined by more than 30 skaters, not just from our own team but also from other roller derby teams across the North.

This year, we’re doing it all over again for a new charity. The team voted to support 4 Louis (Charity Number 1172212), a fantastic Sunderland-based organisation that supports anyone affected by baby or child loss.

4 Louis is doing essential work to help those going through an unimaginably difficult time. As well as being there for anyone who’s lost a baby or a child at any stage, the charity also works to improve the care bereaved families receive from health care and other professionals by offering training and resources.

At a time when parents and family members can feel lost, 4 Louis helps them grieve and celebrate their children’s lives by providing special memory boxes that contain items to support and inspire bereaved families to capture memories with their baby or child. 4 Louis also funds dedicated bereavement rooms, and other essential equipment such as cuddle cots and cuddle blankets.

With so little support currently offered through the NHS to help families dealing with child loss, these memory boxes can provide a lot of comfort—sometimes they’re the only thing a family has to acknowledge their baby’s life.

More than 270,000 of these boxes have been handed out so far, and supporters can gift one to families for just £15.

Today, one in 250 pregnancies ends in stillbirth, and one in four women has experienced a miscarriage. Sadly, most of us know someone who has experienced the loss of a child, and we’re proud to be supporting their incredible efforts to make sure no one facing such a loss goes through it alone.

The event will also help support the team so it can keep growing and offer more people the chance to take part in this exciting and inclusive sport. The team is entirely funded by its members, whose dues cover hall hire, equipment for training and for new skaters, and a financial assistance fund to make sure that any members going through financial difficulties don’t have to give up on a sport they love.

We’d massively appreciate any support you can offer as we lace up our skates for this lengthy trek along the coast.

And if you see us along the way, be sure to give us a wave! (and possibly a lift if we’re really knackered).

THANK YOU!