This Girl Can: Leigh's story
For the past three weeks television adverts, social media posts and billboards across the land have advertised Sport England’s latest campaign This Girl Can. It’s a sassy celebration of women everywhere no matter how they exercise, how they look, or how sweaty they get.
The national charity, the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) is supporting This Girl Can to ensure more disabled women can get involved in the campaign.
Last week, Sport England’s latest Active People Survey was published. It showed that 121,700 fewer disabled people and 125,000 fewer women are regularly taking part in sport. EFDS believes that the results reinforce the importance of understanding and responding to disabled people’s needs and preferences much more effectively.
Campaigns like This Girl Can will play an important role in increasing the numbers of all active women, especially those living with impairments and health conditions.
Leigh Walmsley, 45, is a former Paralympian archer who has limited mobility due nerve damage in her right foot, ankle and a portion of her lower leg following a cycling accident as a child.
“Do some exercise,” she says. “Get outdoors and meet some new people.”
Leigh – This Girl Can
Leigh found her sport calling not just through a need to exercise because of her impairment, but because of having to look after her mental health. It just so happened that, once she found her flair for archery, she never looked back.
“I’m a Paralympian, but before I ever even considered that level of sport I actually went through a divorce,” she tells EFDS.
“I was very depressed, feeling down and thought I was walking around with a sign over my head broadcasting that I had a failed marriage. I felt everyone knew, whereas of course nobody knew and it was just my issues that I was trying to recover from.
“I just felt I needed to get out of the house, because I was driving myself crazy.”
Recognising that she had a mobility impairment and would need a local club that could cater for her needs, Leigh set about seeking the sport for her.
“I have rheumatoid arthritis and I can’t walk very far, so I knew that I couldn’t run and though I like to swim I didn’t fancy doing it in the cold of winter. So what could I do?
“I kept looking for a low-impact sport and also one that was social, that would allow me to meet new people.
“Then I remembered that when I was a young girl I was in Girl Scouts and I once tried archery and loved it. So I looked around for local archery clubs, and luckily at the same time someone was setting up the UK Archery Forum. I joined it in order to pick a few people’s brains and then, in 2006, I attended a taster event.”
Leigh’s initial experience of archery, as with many first-time participants in sport, was not positive. She kept missing the target, even though it wasn’t set too far away from where she was sitting. She began to get discouraged, before a timely intervention.
“I thought archery might not be for me, but one chap who was running the event told me to try it with my other hand,” she explained. “And even though I’m right handed I hadn’t thought to check my eye dominance, and my left eye was stronger.
“And it then made a lot of sense, because I used to be a photographer and was always using my left eye in the camera. It just hadn’t twigged. They then gave me a left-handed bow and it magically solved my problems.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Leigh excelled at open and impairment-specific events and performing at such a high level that she was selected to represent Great Britain at the Paralympics in London in 2012.
The impact of those Games, when sport for disabled people was broadcast into houses across the country and was embraced by the mainstream, has in Leigh’s opinion improved the accessibility of a whole range of sports. She says that, should you want to find an accessible sport in your local area, in 2015 you should be successful.
“Since the popularity of the Paralympics in 2012, more and more clubs for disabled people are being created and more people understand disability,” said Leigh.
“There are now more people who can help you properly. Awareness is huge now, and disability sport has expanded enormously. People are a lot more aware of what’s out there, and because of the internet it so easy to find local clubs and teams.”
In just the same was as Leigh enjoyed the widespread public engagement with the Paralympics three years ago, she says she is delighted by the #ThisGirlCan campaign appearing on the public’s television sets.
She told EFDS: “I happened to be watching Coronation Street when the #ThisGirlCan advert came on. I watched it and loved it. I read people’s blogs and social media posts all about it. I was delighted to see so much diversity and so many people from different backgrounds.
“I think it’s great, and I particularly love the statements that are made: “I jiggle therefore I am.” Well, I agree with that! And I also love “Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox” – absolutely! Why on earth should anyone feel bad about that?”
As a woman who tried her first archery taster session in 2006, and who was representing her country at a Paralympics six years later, Leigh Walmsley is adamant about the potential of sport and physical exercise to improve the lives of disabled people.
And she hopes #ThisGirlCan will inspire more women to get active.
“Just do it, because it’s so much fun and you will find the sport for you,” she says. “If you try one and you don’t like it then don’t quit, because everything can be adapted to suit your disability needs.
“People realise now there’s no need for them to hide away, to feel embarrassed. Why should it only be non-disabled people who can feel like that? Everybody can.”
