Monthly blog round-up: November
Activity Alliance features a blog post every Friday – sharing the experiences of disabled people involved in sport and exercise at all levels, and those who support disabled people, on their journey to being more active. Today, we take a look back at our blogs throughout November and look forward to December's stories.
Throughout November we marked Movember, a campaign which runs throughout November that raises awareness of men's health, by sharing stories from active disabled men.
Our first blog came from amputee footballer, Marc Cronin.
"Being active and playing football gives me a much more positive outlook on life, which in turn has boosted my confidence. It has also helped a lot with my rehabilitation on my prosthesis."
Martin Heald - footballer and climber
Our second blog in our Movember series came from Martin Heald. He tells us how he got into football and climbing - and made his way to the GB para-climbing team and the England Amputee Football team.
"I really enjoy the social side of being active, I have met so many people through doing sport. It makes it that little bit easier to go and train when you know there are people you can chat to or have a laugh with. It’s knowing you’re not alone."
Rick Rodgers - cheerleader
Mid-November saw us hear from Rick, who shared his story on founding ParaCheer and how he works to promote disability inclusion and why ParaCheer means so much to him.
"The wonderful thing about working in a cooperative sport like cheerleading is that it really helps you develop great communication skills. This has really supported me in getting my needs met as a disabled person in other areas of my life."
Zac Lacey - swimmer
Our last blog in our Movember series came from Zac. He spoke about looking forward to competing at the National Junior Para-Swimming Championships for the first time.
"I’m really excited about competing and I’m most looking forward to swimming well and doing my best."
During November, we also marked World Diabetes Day, a global awareness campaign for people with diabetes led by the International Diabetes Federation. To mark this important occasion, we heard from basketballer, Georgia, and footballer and marathon-lover, Craig.
Georgia Jones - basketballer
"In a way, I am motivated by my condition because I don’t want it to prevent me from doing what I love, and that’s playing basketball."
Craig Waugh - footballer and marathon-lover
"I educated myself about the condition and discovered it didn’t mean an end to my sporting days. In fact, I’ve achieved much more with type 1 diabetes than I ever did before. Since my diagnosis, I’ve completed countless half-marathons, five marathons, a 40-mile ultra-marathon and the Ride London 100 mile cycle sportive."
Finally, in November, in her ninth blog post for us, we heard from Shona on how swimming has benefitted her mental health the most.
Shona - becoming more active
"11 months in and there’s definitely a difference in how quickly I’m recovering compared to the start of the year, which has really been encouraging me to keep going. I think it can be discouraging when you aren’t seeing changes or an impact but for me it’s the benefit to my mental health that has been the biggest change."
That's all for our November round-up. December will see us continue share blogs from active disabled people.
If you would like to share your story, please email the communications team on news@activityalliance.org.uk, or call 0161 228 2868.
