please share this page far and wide.. :)

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

The team has now been announced for the world deaf athletics championship in Sofia, Bulgaria in July 2016 ; Melanie Jewett, Bethan Lishman, Colette Doran, Beth Sewell, Candy Hawkins and John Ruddy. Each of them will have to raise at least £1000 to be able to compete for their country, all money raised on this page up until the championship will go towards supporting them. Any support, sponsorship or sharing of our campaign would be much appreciated. Help us achieve our dream of competing for our country..

I've been fortunate to have been able to represent my country as a hammer thrower since 2003 I have been in the UK top 3 and world top 6 since then, and in 2007 I won the European deaf athletics championship, gold medal for hammer. Though the journey has not been an easy one.. along the way, I have had to fundraise every penny required to get me to international competition, I have had to miss out on major championship, solely because I could not raise the funds required to get me there.

UK deaf athletics is not funded for travel and competing costs during international competitions. The team is not as big or as strong as it could be because all athletes have to raise every penny they need themselves to get to and compete internationally.. they don't have the physical support in the way of physio's, dieticians, national training days etc because they can't pay for them. The team is fortunate in that it does have volunteers from interpreters to coaches, to mums and dads that assist the team in anyway they can.

In every major deaf international championships since 2003 the team has brought home medals, and/or championship records against all the odds.

We took a small team to the European deaf athletics championships in Poland in July 2015, each athlete and volunteer had to raise close to £1000 to get there.. Not just for travel and competing but also for training an the kit they wear. John Ruddy did the team proud in bringing home a bronze medal.

Our next goal is the world champs in Bulgaria this summer 2016 again it will cost close to £1000 per athlete.

The purpose of this page, is to try and raise funds for the team and for the future team. We want to be able to support and develop young deaf athletes and give them the opportunity to achieve big things in life and to give them the confidence to know that they can represent their country without having to worry about how they are going to pay to get there.

We are constantly on the look out for sponsors, volunteers and support to help us spread the word and develop the younger generation of deaf athletes and every penny raised will go directly into the team funds to allow us to do this.
 Hope u can help.

Www.ukdeafathletics.org.uk

Any excess raised will go towards Deaf team GB going to the Deaflympics next year 2017.