Our History

This very special charity was begun by Trevor Goodall in 1995 as part of a lasting memorial to his twin sons Joshua and Samuel, who were born prematurely but who sadly died shortly afterwards.

Since that time a remarkable campaign of creating awareness, educating and fundraising has resulted in over £1m being raised, spanning nearly two and a half decades.

Trevor has devoted much of his time and energy to making sure that local Special Care Baby Units (SCBU) receive either much-needed funds and vital medical equipment to enable them to care for those very special babies born sick or too soon.

"I always say the Charity chose me as I would never have dreamed of setting up New Life without the tragedy of my twin sons Joshua and Samuel...

After the boys died well-wishers , family and friends donated £800 as a way of showing they cared. I asked the hospital at Swindon if I could buy some equipment to help them and they named a piece that would cost £1400. After a discussion at Kintbury tennis club, the golf day was conceived to generate extra funds, and within 6 weeks we had a day at West Berks with 120 players. People were so keen to get involved and show their support to my family and the love blew me away.

The day was very emotional and raised a staggering £7,300. It all got a bit much for me and the family and lots of tears flowed.

We called it the Joshua and Samuel Golf day and continued this for 6 years, raising on average £6,000 a year. Year 2 was to celebrate the safe arrival of Hannah and it was a more smiley golf day. We never planned to keep it going.

I remember, after 6 years, thinking that a target of £100,000 would be a great milestone for the boys but that figure seemed years away. But it got me thinking about hitting that goal.

In 2001 we decided to drop the boys' name from the event and New Life was born. It just seemed to describe what I was trying to achieve.

People then started to offer to run the London Marathon and fundraising ideas and challenges started to increase. I loved having the funds to buy much-needed equipment at Swindon and it gave me the thirst for more and to try and help more babies."