Over The Wall With Cara

You know that we love a great story of inspiration here at Small City and so when we heard about the wonderful Cara Tavendale from Strathearn, we knew hers was just the illuminating tale we needed to brighten this emotional week.

At only 22, Cara is a well kent face in her local community; she's a Leisure Assistant with Live Active Strathearn and as well as helping in the gym – she has just completed her Gym Instructor qualification and is currently going through her Personal Training course – she is a level two swimming instructor and is actively involved in athletics in the area.  

What her regular customers to the pool and the gym might not know though, is that Cara has a secret hidden talent! She’s a bit of a musical maestro and plays piano as well as having a beautiful singing voice. 

Hold onto that thought now, because we need to take you back a few years to when Cara was just a wee girl.  A burst appendix left her very sick and even now, she has serious issues with her stomach which means she can’t eat at all and needs to be fed via a tube. 

Six years ago, at the age of 16, Cara attended a fantastic camp for young people living with serious illness through Paul Newman’s Over The Wall charity.   The charity started in the States as ‘Hole In The Wall’ but has since then spread globally and now offers hundreds of children across the world a few days away, enjoying themselves in a series of exciting camps.

Cara remembers her first camp:

“I was 16 when I first went to an Over The Wall camp and since then I’ve done everything from horseriding through the countryside to climbing the wall in Ratho!  It’s all paid for by the charity and they fundraise tirelessly to make sure they have enough funds to make this happen.

I used to always sing when I was away at camp and I think that’s why I was invited to join in a group that they had at big fundraiser in new York a couple of years ago.   It was crazy – Jake Gyllenhall was on stage with us!”

She obviously impressed the organisers because she was just invited back last week to sing solo, while playing piano, at their London event.  Cara wrote a letter explaining what the charity had done for her and you can imagine her excitement when this was read out by JUDE LAW (real life movie star people!) before he introduced her!  Cara sang ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon and was accompanied by an orchestra for her moment in spotlight.

That, my friends, is how you nail your troubles to a wall and inspire a generation!

“I would never have imagined at that first camp that I’d be singing for famous people and helping to raise money for such a brilliant cause.   It was amazing!”

Well, here at Small City we think Cara is the one who’s AMAZING and in fact, it should be Jude Law considering himself lucky to have had a hug from her!