We have training tops!!!! Roooaaaaaar

Thanks to the Middlesbrough Teesside Lions we have a training top for every player :O).  They came along to our last taster session to give us the tops they donated.

Looking good Owen

We made the paper again too!

Paralympic Flame Festival

On Friday 24th August MPFC represented Middlesbrough at the Paralympic Flame Festival at Beamish. Every local authority showcased their disability sports projects and MPFC went along with a Powerchair football taster for the people of the North East.

Before the flame arrived trying out our nearly smooth flooring that nearly all the other sports were jealous of!

The forecast was rain but we were lucky that it held off and we were able to demo and let people have a try so long as they stayed away from the edge!!! (I have to admit to letting out a little squeal when Owen got close to the edge).

Once the torch had had arrived the green became busy with the people of the North East coming to try out or watch the different sports. Steve's sister got to try - she was the one who sounded like Sarah Millican, she was as witty too - if Sarah Millican did Powerchair football!!!! 

We had the mayor of Gateshead in a powerchair having a go and we even got one of the Beamish staff to have a go too! Not sure the wheelchairs in 1913 were this advanced! 

The flame, a splinter of the flame brought up from London, was passed between sports in a miners lantern.  Owen took the flame on a short but bumpy journey to sportability.

Owen holding the splinter of the paralympic flame

MPFC had a great time stepping back in time and being part of a once in a lifetime opportunity... and we made the news :O)

BBC Look North

Front Page News

Middlesbrough Powerchair Football Club were featured in the August edition of Now and Then - an independent regional magazine. We made the front page!!!!!! :0D

5 tastes

Thought it was about time I updated everyone on Powerchair football in Middlesbrough.  

We've delivered 5 free taster sessions, using funding from a Community Health grant, to buy in the support and the hire of specialist football chairs from Percy Hedley Disability Sports Academy in Newcastle and to hire the sports hall (the size of 4 badminton pitches) at the Rainbow Leisure Centre in Coulby Newham.

MPFC practicing team play with a match, trying to abide by all the rules!

The Rainbow Centre have allowed us storage space and we are gradually obtaining some secondhand club powerchairs through donations and some eBay purchases.  They are not all specialist football ones but we hope they will fill the gap once the taster session funding ends (one more session left). We are getting these ready with the help of Nigel at Active Mobility. Next step is bumpers from DB Engineering - they are Boro fans so we're hoping for preferential treatment!

Photos by Christopher Reed

During the last taster at the end of July we not only had two sessions but visitors attending too. Chris Reed came along and took some photos for us - he claims he is an amateur photographer but I was very impressed, my photos are usually blurry! Thanks Chris, your photos are fab!

We were also joined by Chris Read (a different Chris to the photographer - it's Read with an A and yes it was confusing) from A Smile for a Child. Chris came along to one of our taster sessions earlier in the year and was so impressed he accepted our request for help and came back this time with a cheque from A Smile for a Child. This donation will mean that we will be able to pay for the hire of 5 powerchairs, to enable MPFC to get going as a Powerchair football club and to be able to train on a regular basis. This is thanks to a new initiative from the WFA, they are so impressed with our progress as a new club that we are the first club to have this scheme offered - another thankyou. We will have these powerchairs for 6 months, during this time we need to raise funds to purchase our own - we will be fundraising so WATCH THIS SPACE!

Thank you Thank you Thank you

a Mars a day ...

Back in May we were successful in winning an award from the Mars Refuel Drink Fund.

"The MARS Refuel™ drink fund was set up to encourage people to play their favourite sport for longer"

With the award we will be buying specialist goal posts from Boa Engineering this will mean we know longer need to use foam cones that blow over constantly when we do powerchair football demos at outside events - YAY! We will also be able to buy bibs to be used at training and during matches.

Goal posts from Boa Engineering and the MPFC photo featured on the MARS Refuel website.

Our wish ...

The Evening Gazette and Middlesbrough & Teesside Philanthropic Foundation are giving not-for-profit sports clubs in the Teesside area the chance to receive a share of £30,000. You've guessed it... Middlesbrough Powerchair Football Club is collecting Sports Wish tokens!!!!!

We need tokens!!  Lets see if we can collect enough to buy a powerchair football bumper (powerchair equivalent of football boots).

The Evening Gazette sent a photographer to one of our taster sessions and Caz did a phone interview with the reporter and as a result MPFC got in the paper - check out our article.

Our article - click on the link above to read it online

We have had a few envelopes of tokens arrive on our doorstep thanks to the lovely readers, including a letter with tokens from the Houses of Parliament! I was impressed even though Rosie wasn't (until a second letter arrived!)

Wish Tokens from our MP Tom Blenkinsop

The wish tokens feature in the Gazette until the end of August so please keep collecting :O)

100 days to go

On Monday, the day before this glorious weather, Steve, Owen and I went down to Centre Square to showcase powerchair football at the '100 days to go' paralympic celebrations.

I was interviewed for the telly and got a little slot on ITV Tyne Tees News while Owen made it into the gazette - I do feel my face is better suited to radio though!!!

As MPFC does not have their own set of specialist powerchairs yet, we were only able to demo our sport. There were other sports to have a go at; wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, table tennis, athletics & boccia. Boccia was the only other sport that Steve, Owen and I could have participated in due to our physical disabilities, which again proves the need for the provision of sporting opportunities for people with severe physical disabilities within the Tees Valley, MPFC is meeting this need! (I should add here the nearest boccia specific club is in Durham!!!!)

Bruce Wake Trust

This morning we were delighted to recieve a letter with a cheque attached from the Bruce Wake Trust.

A day of meeting people

So we've been for some interesting meetings today.  The day started with us visiting MFC in the hope they may be able to help with funding a powerchair.

Then since we were over that way we popped into Middlesbrough College to check out their facilities - we were impressed - watch this space for updates.

Craig, the sports dude at the college, chatted to us about our sport. I've got bettter and better at releasing my passion at the right moment, I haven't cried yet but it's on the cards soon! He was in charge of applying for funding for the new gymnastics centre - we are talking 7 figures here, makes our little £50,000 sound easily do able!

He suggested we contact Nigel at Active Mobility, who we've since found out is Clair's Uncle!  How lovely was he - he said he'd help :O)

We then had one more idea up our sleeves which we will hopefully be able to update you on soon if my selling of the club and the need for it in Middlesbrough worked.

Just need to email everyone now to make sure they didn't have their fingers crossed and locked the door behind us! :0p

Here's some photo's of our taster sessions to remind everyone of how much we NEED a powerchair football club in Middlesbrough.

Want to see what we get up to?

Apparently a picture paints a thousand words...

more photos to follow - I need my bed, powerchair football wears you out you know!

Introducing ...

Middlesbrough Powerchair Football Club is a new club for people of all ages, male & female & all abilities to be involved in competitive or recreational powerchair football.

This fast paced team sport enables those with even the most severe physical disabilities to play the beautiful game.

We have delivered 3 taster sessions to establish whether there is a need for such a club in Middlesbrough ... so far it appears there is!!!!!!

So how did it begin?

The ball started rolling ;o) when the mam of a young lad, who has a disability that means he is excluded from most sports as he needs to use a powerchair for mobility, contacted the mayor to tell him about powerchair football and the need for a club here in Middlesbrough. There are no other sports clubs that cater for his needs and he is often the only child who uses a wheelchair.

Caz and I had already attended the WFA coaching course so that we were qualifed and we got invited to the resulting meeting. I'll post later about how we became involved. The mayor knows lots of people and consequently we were signposted to Middlesbrough Sport & leisure services - with a bit off help, a constitution, committee members, our own bank account, a venue and a PCT grant for tasters our club was founded.

All we needed now was for people who are eligible to play to sign & turn up for the free sessions and turn up they did :O)