Employees at Skandia, the title sponsor of Cowes Week regatta, have voted for the Ellen MacArthur Trust to be the official charity of Skandia Cowes Week for the next three years.

The selection means the charity will benefit from a range of initiatives run at the event which will help raise funds and the overall profile of charity.

Dame Ellen MacArthur launched the Trust in 2003 to enable young people aged 8-18 to take part in sailing as a way of helping them regain their confidence on their way to recovery from cancer, leukaemia and other serious illness.

MacArthur commented: “They battle against something harder than many of us could ever imagine and they do it with the biggest smiles on their faces. To me they are truly inspirational and if the Trust can help them in their battle against serious illness in any way then that is a fantastic achievement.”

The Ellen MacArthur Trust is a national charity based in Cowes. As well as Ellen, the Trust has Double Olympic Gold Medallist Shirley Robertson as a patron.

Tim Sewell, Skandia’s sponsorship manager said: “We carried out a comprehensive review of all the key sailing charities and saw presentations from 10 before we selected three to go forward to the vote by Skandia employees. The Ellen MacArthur Trust was the clear winner and everyone is looking forward to working with the team to ensure the charity’s association with the event helps them to expand the terrific work they do to help young people.”

The Trust will be the official charity of Skandia Cowes Week for the next three years, taking over from Sail 4 Cancer.

“We’re over the moon that Skandia employees have selected us to be the official charity for Skandia Cowes Week, and would like to thank all the Skandia staff who voted for us,” says Frank Fletcher from the Ellen MacArthur Trust. “This is a great opportunity and we look forward to introducing some new and exciting initiatives.”