Gander Grants

Lucy Milnes' Article

The 11th of July marked the start of my Borneo journey, which ended on the 31st. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget.

I relished every second of my expedition and gained new knowledge and abilities while I was in the country. Despite the fact that I had a great time and accomplished incredible things every day, I will share with you one of the highlights of my expedition.

On Friday, July 18, my team and I received an invitation to tour the nearby Tenom school, where we had spent two nights in the middle of the jungle with a local family. But on Friday, we returned to the village and spent the afternoon unwinding before the next day’s arduous journey up to Kudat. However, my teammates and I received notification that we were permitted to attend the Tenom school at around 11.30 a.m.

It was the most amazing experience, and we seized the opportunity. When we initially arrived at the school, we were welcomed by the head teacher and deputy head, with whom we met and took pictures before further staff members arrived. By this time, every child had noticed us and was yelling through the windows to get our attention. We became overwhelmed with all of the kids as the classes were released one by one, but it was the most unbelievable thing. Since the majority of the kids had never seen British people before and the adults had not seen British people since before the coronavirus, they all wanted to take pictures with us and learn more about us.

The school day finished at 12.30 due to the extreme heat, so we departed with the kids, who all walked home, etc. Shortly after leaving the school, a number of the school children arrived at the community lodge we were staying at for the night, welcomed us again, and asked us to join them at the local volleyball competition. So we packed up our bags and walked to the game.

The court was packed when we got there; entire generations of families had come to watch the game, and the kids insisted that we join them. After an hour or two of playing, we got to know all the friendly locals, who were enthralled with us and kept asking us about our lives in England. As night fell and darkness descended, everyone decided it was time to return home, so we returned to the lodge and played and chatted with the locals for a final half hour before bidding farewell.

The following day, we would be travelling to Kudat, which is located far to the north of Borneo—therefore, we would not be seeing these amazing people again. Friday the 18th was an unforgettable day that altered my outlook on life. It was a wonderful opportunity to interact and form bonds with the locals, and the joy the kids showed upon seeing us was something that would last a lifetime. I would like to thank Goxhill Gander for my grant of £250, which helped towards the cost of my trip to Borneo. Thank you for all of the continued support

Sophie Cleghorn's Article

I would like to express my thanks to The Gander for their kind donation of £250 towards my expedition, which took place in July of this year.

I was very fortunate to experience a once-in-a-lifetime expedition to Borneo with Baysgarth School and 11 other students. To be able to experience this, we each had to raise just over £4,000 through fundraising, working, grants, etc., so the donation from The Gander was greatly appreciated towards this total.

We flew out to Borneo in July 2025 and experienced three weeks of the different cultures and beauty that Borneo had to offer. On arriving in Borneo, we got settled and visited some local markets to see what they had to offer.

There were some very different-looking “treats” which I didn’t quite fancy tasting! We started by completing a home stay, where we learnt about the different cultures and experienced life out in Borneo. We then went on a multiple-day hike through the rainforest, setting up camp at the end of each day and experiencing the beauty that Borneo had to offer away from all civilisation.

One of my favourite experiences was the opportunity to visit a school. We met some amazing children from primary to secondary age and loved sharing the day with them, seeing how different school life is out there compared to back home. The children were incredible, and I learnt so much from the short time we spent with them.

Our next stop was the service learning stay, where we helped build a new chicken coop from scratch for the local community. There were a couple of mishaps along the way, but we got there in the end and built a lovely coop ready for them to house new chickens. We then visited the beautiful sun bear and orangutan sanctuary in Sepilok and learnt about all the amazing work that is done for these beautiful animals. We even took a night-time hike to spot wildlife in their natural habitat.

After leaving the sanctuary, we went on a jungle camp and did two river cruises, spotting animals in the wild including monkeys, giant lizards, and crocodiles — we definitely had to keep an eye out and all hands inside the boat! After experiencing such amazing wildlife, learning about different cultures, and meeting so many wonderful people, we headed back to our initial hostel, ready for the long journey home. We took a stop at a beautiful beach to snorkel with marine wildlife, which was the perfect ending to the trip. The gruelling flight home and long journey were truly worth it for such an unforgettable experience — one that I will never forget.

Without the support of friends, family, and donations, we couldn’t have raised the funds for me to experience Borneo’s true beauty. So, I thank The Gander again for helping make this happen. Baysgarth runs these expeditions every couple of years, and I can honestly say that if you are a student attending and have the opportunity to sign up for one — go for it! Don’t regret what you could have experienced.