Bikers support Olly’s Rainbow

The West Sussex branch of the Triumph Owners’ Motorcycle Club, which meets in Ford, has donated £500 to Rustington charity Olly’s Rainbow.

The money was raised during the club’s annual custom and classic bike show, at the Bat and Ball, Wisborough Green, in August, and was handed over to charity founder Alex Acteson during a club night at the Ship and Anchor, in Ford.

More than 60 bikers and campers attended the show in August, where the evening’s entertainment was provided by band Bad Attitude.

Alex, who lives in Rustington, set up the charity in memory of her son, Olly, who died of cot death, or sudden infant death syndrome, last year, aged just five months.

Alex, 31, said: “Olly was a little miracle. I was a single parent and he was my world.

“We were living the dream for those months, he was my little soul mate.”

She said that she went to check on him as normal in the early hours of the morning, but he wasn’t breathing.

Olly was rushed to Worthing Hospital by ambulance, where Alex had a painful wait for news.

“It felt like forever. They were working on him, and tried and tried to bring him back, but just couldn’t.

“It was the most surreal, unbelievable, frightening experience of my life. They just couldn’t do anything.”

The charity founded in his honour aims to educate parents and help them should they find themselves in the same situation, by providing an online support network, and providing free workshops, teaching CPR.

Olly’s Rainbow will also subsidise Angel Care movement and sound monitors for low-income families.