Padel Peeps, founded by GB Seniors pair Karen Hazzard and Lucie Wade, held a tournament fundraiser for breast cancer awareness on Saturday as they continue to use padel to support under-represented communities.
Karen and Lucie hosted a charity padel tournament and raffle to raise money and awareness for breast cancer at Crawley’s Padel Hub.
Padel Peeps run inclusive padel events and social tournaments that are open for anyone to take part, but their specialism is shining a light on those suffering disadvantage or who may typically lack opportunities to get involved in sport.
Speaking to The Padel Paper, Karen, a recent competitor in the FIP Senior Euro Padel Cup alongside Lucie, discussed what initially sparked the idea for an inclusive padel company.
She said: “Lucie and I started Padel Peeps as a passion project. We used to go to tournaments and events and think to ourselves, ‘We can actually do better than this and give more value back to the community.’”
Since January, the two have hosted a variety of Padel Peeps events, ranging from coach and compete events — an hour of coaching followed by a lively Americano tournament — to an LGBTQ+ social tournament as part of Brighton Pride.
Alongside this, Lucie and Karen also wanted to add a charitable element to their tournaments. At their first one, they fundraised for Breast Cancer Now, a research and support charity aiming to ensure that everybody with breast cancer will live and be supported by 2050.
Lucie, a padel player for four years, explained why the charity was so important to spotlight.
Lucie said: “I promised my mum that I would do a breast cancer event — she’s 30 years clear.
“At one of our first events, a lady called Carol came along. She had secondary breast cancer, was a big supporter of Breast Cancer Now, and was going to help us with this event. Sadly she passed away in August.”
A lover of both tennis and padel, Carol walked the Breast Cancer Now catwalk in May, and will be dearly missed by her friends and family.
Karen and Lucie dedicated the event to Carol, and were overjoyed at the support shown by the padel community.
Karen said: “It’s a cause that’s close to our hearts, so we’re delighted with how it went.
“Once the event got up and running and we knew we had all our players there at the right place and the right time, we were able to relax and enjoy it a little more.”
Lucie added: “It took a huge amount of planning and a lot of reaching out to sponsors, a lot of fundraising. We were a bit nervous, because it’s probably the biggest event we’ve done with 32 players.”
The tournament followed a ‘split and switch’ format. The players were divided into two groups, Improvers and Advanced, and each competitor played six 10-minute matches.
After each match, the winning pair moved up a court, whilst the defeated pair moved down, and all players switched partners, keeping the tournament dynamic and switching up the styles of matches for every round.
The pair are already looking ahead for Padel Peeps, and are excited to continue their charity drives.
Lucie revealed: “We would like to do an event near Christmas, where every ticket sale goes to a Christmas dinner for a homeless person. We’re going to see which charities we want to work with.”
Karen and Lucie also have an over 50s and over 60s event in the works, as well as some other mainstream tournaments and coaching sessions.
Lucie also mentioned that the pair were keen to run an event to raise awareness for neurodiversity as her daughter is neurodiverse.
The pair expressed their gratitude to the Padel Hub for providing the venue for the event, and also thanked Adidas, who provided Padel Peeps with the Adidas Cross IT 2025 padel racket as the signature raffle prize.
