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A charity donation from a North East property company’s Foundation will enable a talented visually impaired tennis team to reach their goals of competing in a national tennis championship for blind and visually impaired people.
The Adderstone Foundation, the charity arm of Newcastle based property development company, Adderstone Group, have donated £1672 to the North East Visually Impaired (VI) Tennis Club and the vital funds will enable the locally based team to compete in the Metro Blind Sport National Tennis Tournament taking place at the National Tennis Centre in London on the weekend of 5th and 6th October.
Visually Impaired Tennis features sound balls, extra bounces and smaller courts and, as a result of awareness raised for Disability Sport during the 2012 Paralympics, it has seen its following grow over recent years.
Wendy Glasper, from Darlington, is the secretary of the North East VI Tennis Club who train regularly and play their matches at both the Northumberland Club in Jesmond and at the Sunderland Tennis Centre in Silksworth.
Wendy, who first became involved in VI Tennis in 2007 after attending a PE Course during her day job with Action for Blind People, said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone at Adderstone Foundation for their generous donation. The funds will do so much for the club in helping us to raise awareness and attract new members.
“The club was set up in 2010 and we train as often as we can in Newcastle and Sunderland. VI Tennis gives members, both adults and children, the opportunity to get fit and build on basic coordination and social skills whilst also gaining invaluable confidence. It gives our members a chance to do things that they never thought they could whilst having fun and making new friends.
“We will be using this donation to enable some members of the team to travel to the National Championships in London and it will also help us to set up a club website and produce some promotional materials to attract new members – it may help us attract some additional funding too!”
Wendy, along with team members Rosie Pybus and Steven Trewick, will compete in the national competition which includes events for ladies and men’s singles, ladies and men’s visually impaired doubles, mixed visually impaired doubles and mixed visually impaired and sighted doubles.
Rosie, who has been playing tennis for just over three years said: “As a visually impaired person, tennis has become such a huge part of my life. Although I've only been playing for a short time I have already exceeded personal barriers, proving to friends and family that playing tennis is possible when you are visually impaired!
“There is nothing more exhilarating than the feeling of walking on to court with my guide dog by my left side, my racket on my back and sound balls rattling away in my backpack.
“The tennis network in the North East has been welcoming, friendly and most of all, supportive, which makes it an honour to represent the North East nationally and hopefully soon internationally too.”
Ian Baggett, Trustee of Adderstone Foundation, is a former Northumberland Tennis County Champion and is currently ranked as number two in the Great Britain over 40s category. He said: “I have joined the visually impaired team during recent training sessions and have been amazed at their skills and determination.
“Through Adderstone Foundation we are keen to encourage and promote access to tennis in the North East and we were delighted to be able to support such a worthwhile campaign.
“We would like to wish all members well during the forthcoming National Championships and look forward to hearing how the have got on when they return.”