Wheelchair tennis junior world No.1 Lauren Jones went back to where her career began to help newly injured people try out wheelchair tennis as part of the Inter-Spinal Unit Games at Stoke Mandeville.
The 17-year-old originally attended the Games four years ago during her rehabilitation from breaking her back and soon found that wheelchair tennis was the game for her – taking it all the way to international standard.
And Worthing-based Lauren attended the home of the Paralympics, Stoke Mandeville hospital, to encourage others to take up wheelchair tennis as both part of their rehabilitation and a fun, accessible and rewarding sport to enjoy.
It was all part of the 'have-a-go' sessions from the Tennis Foundation as wheelchair tennis was one of a number of sports taking centre stage in the event run by WheelPower in conjunction with various spinal unit across the UK.
And Lauren was delighted with the amount of enthusiasm shown at the event – and admitted she had to be on her game as she played against some of the attendees.
"Everyone was really up for it which was great," she said. "They were all really competitive and wanted to beat me which worked really well because I was more than happy to try and beat them.
"But it was a really good day to go and try to inspire a few people to get into the sport because that is how I got started and it has done so much for me.
"Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and I'm sure a few will go on to keep playing regularly because it is well worth doing. Rehabilitation begins in the hospital and it is so important to have something to focus on which wheelchair tennis offered to me.
"There are plenty of ways to play and it is easy to get into. And you never know if you keep attending camps they always have people there looking out and you might get picked up and then get to travel the world."
Jones was helping out at the Inter-Spinal Unit Games just after finding out she had been selected as part of Great Britain's junior team at the BNP Paribas World Team Cup in Antalya, Turkey later this year – and she couldn't wait to get out there.
"I'm really excited," she added. "It was amazing to go last year and win bronze on my first ever try but I am determined to go better this year.
"Hopefully with a year's experience we can really push on."
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