Disability Empowerment Association Launched.

It's been months in the planning but yesterday we finally launched our new charity, Disabled Empowerment Association, at Passmores School in Harlow. In attendance were; Mrs Kezia Obama(stepmum to USA President Obama), Harlow MP Bill Rammell, the Lord Lieutenant of Essex, Lord Petre, Edna Stevens,chair of Harlow Council, Robert Halfon, Conservative candidate, and local Councillor, Tony Hall. There were about two hundred people present who thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment provided by; Footwork Dance School(Indian dance),Efua Academy(African dance and drums), Makin' Steps Performing Arts(Hip hop dance), and Dance 21, for me the stars of the evening. They were fantastic, especially when they danced to songs from 'Grease'. Music was provided by Adam Amor, superb saxophonist and very good friend, Noah Keya, and DJ Lopo T. I've been very stressed out over the past few weeks trying to set the whole event up but the end result made it all worthwhile. Thanks to everyone involved, especially our Chairman, Solomon Mugondi who was MC.

Now the hard work really starts as we try to get the funding to run classes in Art, Dance, Music, IT, Creative Writing and Sport. I will have to balance my sporting activities with work for the charity but I will do it because I relish a challenge. Bring it on! Can we make it a successful organisation, YES WE CAN!!

Canal Boat Project

Yesterday I had a rest day from training and took the opportunity to take a leisurely cruise on the canal in 'Stort Daybreak', the boat I launched a few years back that began my association with the Harlow Canal Boat Project. Its a charity I'm very close to and try to support as much as I can because it allows people with a disability to enjoy our wonderful network of canals in specially adapted wheelchair accessible barges.

I went along with my niece Sylvia, my son Tim and two of his friends, Ben and Daniel, and we were joined on board by Robert Halfon and his girlfriend, the Project Co-Ordinator Doreen Goodall and her husband, and Mark, a wheelchair shooter. Our skipper was Tom Bilbow,first mate Les Hunt and Michael Motts was the crewman. It was lovely to be in such mixed company and we all had a great time as the barge crunched its way through the frozen over canal. Tim and his friends had a great time helping the crew to work the locks and got a lovely certificate each for their efforts. Mind you, I felt like I was on the 'Titanic' and was on the lookout for icebergs! Thank goodness there weren't any. We had a lovely lunch at Parndon Mill before returning to base. It was a lovely day out and many thanks to Doreen for arranging it and the crew for making our journey a safe one.

Harlow Sports Awards 09.

It's interesting that when you are an athlete and start doing well how this can lead on to other things. For example, yesterday after I'd done my usual 10 miles training it was back home for a nice hot bath and then getting dressed in my posh clothes to give a short talk at a function I'd been invited to.
It was held at Harlow Town Football Ground, a lovely venue with a great view of the pitch from the windows of the Functions Suite. It was the official launch of the Harlow Sports Awards 09.The awards started last year and I was a recipient of the Disability Award, presented to me by the famous cricketer Graham Gooch, so I was honoured to be asked to give a short talk on the Importance of Sport as part of the launch. I think it went well.
Afterwards it was nice to chat to the other guests who included Councillor Tony Hall and his wife, Robert Halfon, the Conservative candidate at the next election, Neil Mann, who won the Services to Sport Award last year, and the man who has the unenviable task of trying to teach me to swim, plus up and coming sporting talents James Huckle and Mark Hunt. I really enjoyed myself and it was a nice break from the rigours of training.