A charitable streak from a near-death experience
A trip to the seaside as a child meant charity became part of Sonny Cutting’s DNA.
Sonny, aged just 12, was on a fateful family trip to Brighton from his hometown of Battersea London. His mum had decided to take the family to the seaside because of the kids’ love for Hawaii Five-0.
Running to the water’s edge, Sonny and his brother jumped into their dinghy with their paddles and off they went. But a little while later, when the young boys were about 10 metres out, the rope tether, securing them to the shore, loosened.
The boys drifted further out and as they got further from the shore, the waves started to get choppier and slowly water started to fill the dinghy. Completely unaware, Sonny’s step-dad, who was known to have a few drinks, had fallen asleep and the boys’ waves for attention were misinterpreted as waves of delight.
It was not a time of mobile phones and GPS Trackers etc. Panic didn’t set in until the dinghy was full of water. Very luckily for Sonny and his brother, someone who was fishing from the shoreline, saw the adrift brothers, legged it to the phone and rang the RNLI.
Sonny recalled:
“To this day, I have no idea who that person was, but I have to say THANK YOU. If he hadn’t spotted us, or made the call, we would have drowned.”
The brothers were rescued within minutes by a lovely orange (hence Sonny’s favourite colour) dinghy – one far bigger and sturdier than theirs! And after a few stern words from the RNLI, the family were able to return home, unscathed and unharmed.
Without the RNLI, it could have been a very different ending and this is why Sonny today is so passionate about giving back and helping others. From this near-death experience, Sonny recognised how important it was to support charities and the work they do.
To the RNLI, “Thank You. I will forever be in your debt.” Sonny Cutting, Sussex Entrepreneur.
Supporting Children’s Charities
Over the years, Sonny and his businesses have supported children’s charities with free expo stands for brand awareness, advertising exposure as well as networking support to help raise critical funds of what these wonderful charities do in the local area. Over the last six years, these have included the following charities:
Rockinghorse Children’s Charity
Kangaroos Fun Disability Clubs
Sonny is grateful to have been able to support so many charities over the years and 2025 will see a new partnership with four charities open up: These include: The Sussex Beacon, Together Co, Zetetick Housing and Safe in Sussex. Sussex has 1000’s of charities and we can only partner a few, so these four charity organisations will be partnered over the next two years to help grow their awareness to local businesses.
Sonny Cutting, Father, Husband, Entrepreneur and Gamer!