Wheelchair Rugby
Yesterday I took part in a game of wheelchair rugby and I think I love
it! Miss Rugby Natalie Nason and her lovely organiser Diane Slater gathered a
team of Miss & Mr England finalists, with a few parents and friends, and got
some of the England wheelchair rugby team to put us through our paces!
Also in attendance was the Mayes family, who had just completed
the Wheelchair
Awareness Challenge – a gruelling eight day walk from Leicester to Blackpool
for a number of charities that Calum Mayes, who is a teenage amputee with
such a positive outlook on life, wanted to give back to.
On arrival I’ll admit, watching the England players tip each other
out of the wheelchairs, with cuts and bruises all over and smashing into each
other….I was pretty scared!
However, we got to have a little practice just us finalists and
once strapped in I discovered how fun this sport really is! I got right up to
speed and learnt how to spin and turn, and smash into other players. I haven’t done
contact sport for a while, but I reckon all those Body Combat classes I attend
have unleashed something in me and I was soon on the attack grappling for the
ball.
We were then split into teams with some of the England players on
each side to keep it even. I was with Maria Miss Coventry, Natalie Miss Rugby,
Chloe Miss Nuneaton, Lucy Miss Sussex as well as Kieran and Matt – Kieran is
the number one wheelchair rugby player in the world at only 17! I’m pretty
fearless so I got stuck into the scrums and bashed around a fair bit and
managed to score a try! Natalie was also pretty awesome and also scored! I don’t
think we won though, as the other team had Alex Miss Forest & Fens and she
is pretty feisty, and Megan Miss Bedfordshire must have played before because
she scored a ridiculous amount of times!
It was such a fun day and just before we left the guys stripped
off and put some Oddballs boxers on to have a picture with us to raise awareness
of testicular cancer – obviously a campaign really close to my heart. We also
met Bobby Rhodes, a lovely five year old boy suffering from Lissencephaly who
parents are in need of a mobility car. You can find out how you can help here: https://www.facebook.com/bobbystrust2010
Thank you so much to everyone for making Sunday a real fun day.
Big thanks to Natalie and Diane, and to Lucy for driving us all the way from
down South. When Miss England is all over I will have to keep busy with charity
and community work as I look forward to my weekends so much with days like
yesterday happening!
Photos by Kev Wise Photography, and a few by me (the rubbish phone
ones).
0 comments:
Post a Comment