Essex All Together ambassador inspires others with new song
Justine Harrington, 28, from Basildon, who was born with a visual impairment, is hoping to encourage more disabled people in Essex to get involved with physical activity and sport through the launch of her new song and music video - Don’t Tell Me.
Justine strongly believes that everyone, whatever their level of ability or learning, should have the same opportunities to access sport and physical activity.
In February 2017, Justine decided to take up trampolining, a sport she had tried as a child. It was during this time, as she started to build up her confidence and abilities on the trampoline, that she wrote a song titled - Don’t Tell Me.
Commenting on the motivation behind her song, Justine said:
"I was inspired to write my song when I started trampolining and I hope to spread the message that you should never be anyone but your true self and always believe in your own abilities and dreams, regardless of what anyone else says. Always be who you are."
Justine has always been creative but was frustrated when people suggested she couldn’t do things because of her visual impairment.
Justine added:
"I found it very controlling and was frustrated when people said: ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’. They were trying to teach me to be a certain person – that I had to conform to everyone’s view of what blind people should be able to do."
Through the All Together ambassador programme, Justine has continued to build her own confidence, share her experiences, and meet other ambassadors from across the county.
The All Together ambassador programme is managed by Active Essex, the county sports partnership for Greater Essex which last year, announced a four-year strategy to change one million lives to get Essex active. This included a key priority to improve health and wellbeing of disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, who make up over 17 per cent of the Greater Essex population.
Anne Wafula Strike, Essex All Together ambassador and Active Essex Board member said:
"It has been wonderful getting to know Justine and seeing how her passion as an ambassador is inspiring other people. I am very proud of her achievements so far and I hope her song will encourage other people to find out what sport and physical activity is available in their own local community.
"We would love to hear from other people in Essex who would be interested in becoming an All Together ambassador and share their own experiences to help increase the numbers of people with disabilities taking part in sport and physical activity."
Earlier this year, Active Essex signed up several organisations working within the disability sector, who have agreed to promote the various opportunities and services for disability sport through their own networks.
A number of other Essex All Together ambassadors feature in the video alongside Justine. They are: Alex Turley, Ben Ashley, Oliver Lancashire and Richard Naylor-Jones.
