The Inaugural Amputee Games

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

INAUGURAL AMPUTEE GAMES

13^th – 14^th June 2008

The brainchild of David Hilton and Kiera Roche (Event Director of the Douglas Bader Foundation), the Inaugural Amputee Games was held in June and proved to be an enormous success. David, who lost his leg (above knee) in 1974 is also paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair for his sports, and Kiera, who lost her leg in a RTA eight years ago and now walks and plays sport using a prosthesis, first met in 2006 whilst attending a seminar run by the British Paralympic Association at Bisham Abbey. They got chatting over a meal, the idea of the Games was born and David says they never looked back.

The outcome of David and Kiera’s fantastic efforts following that fateful meeting was the first ever event to be held in the UK purely targeting Amputees and helping them to gain a pathway into sport; something which, as David says, has been sadly lacking over a great number of years.

Disappointingly, the pair were unable to find sufficient funding to hold the Games in 2007, as originally hoped. The event finally took place at Stoke Mandeville Stadium (a fitting venue as the Stadium is close to where the first Paralympic Games were held in 1948 to coincide with the London Olympics) over the weekend of the 13^th -14^th June this year following 18 months of hard work and planning.

The Games were specifically intended for new amputees, those having lost limbs within the last 3 years. As well as the competition sports, special “Have a Go” sessions were built into the weekend as a way of encouraging them to try different sports and activities. As Kiera says, it can be very dispiriting for new amputees to think that they can no longer do the things they used to enjoy before amputation as competently as before if at all. Being able to have a go at sports in a supportive environment can help them to realise that they can still do those things but that they just have to do them differently. For those still discouraged, the sessions also provided the opportunity to try a totally new sport or activity where there is no basis for comparison between before and after amputation skills or levels of achievement.

David Hilton reports of the Games:

“Despite the fact that a couple of teams dropped out at the last minute due to illness and transport problems, the event proved to be a great success.

13 different sports were on offer during the weekend, and four of these included a mini-competition for each unit to gain points towards a trophy.

ARCHERY (C), ATHLETICS, BASKETBALL, BOWLS, CUE SPORTS, FENCING, HAND CYCLING, POWER-LIFTING,
SHOOTING (C), SITTING VOLLEYBALL, SWIMMING (C),
TABLE TENNIS (C), TENNIS

Over the 2 days, we had present Coaches and Staff from the Governing Bodies of each sport, not only to coach people but to give them advice if they wished to continue with the sport.

Teams from: Belfast, Roehampton, Oxford, Bristol and Wexham Park along with a lot of individuals participated in the events.

Saturday was not all just about sport, it was also decided to have a social side to the event and we therefore arranged for a Quiz and a Raffle to be held in the bar on the Saturday evening which was once again well attended by over 100 people, officials and competitors and the atmosphere and comradeship definitely shone through.

Points were given to the individuals/teams who participated in each event and further points for those who won the competition sports. Winners of the Trophy for the Best Unit was Belfast, closely followed by Roehampton, and it is hoped that these two teams and many others will compete for the Trophy again in 2009.

It was a very successful event with most people saying they would love another event next year and also more units have already pledged their support for further events.

I attend a lot of sports-related meetings all over the country and everywhere I go people talk about the Games and how successful and friendly it was and how many individuals have joined different sports clubs. It would be a shame not to make it part of the annual sporting calendar.

The aim of the organisers was met; a good weekend with people enjoying themselves and the officials reporting that they had picked up a number of potential athletes for the future (this happened in

90% of the sports). Further games should now be planned and maybe a Junior Event introduced as well.

I would like to thank the sponsors for their kind support, also the volunteers who made the weekend a great success and hope we can work together for many years to come and make this an annual event for Amputees.”

David Hilton – Event Organiser

There is no doubt that participation in sport is valuable in a number of ways. Apart from the enjoyment of the activity itself, the fitness gained will be beneficial both from the point of view of weight control, obviously harder if mobility is impaired, and improved overall lifetime prognosis. Taking part in a sport can, as Kiera says, give the amputee a sense of freedom and empowerment and, in her words can “enable you to reach a plateau where you feel normal again”.

Participant, Mike Stoneman, remarked that “if you can take part in active sports then it improves your confidence and coping with limb loss is often about attitude and being very positive”. This sentiment was endorsed by Ergun Ahmed, who took up Badminton (one of several sports he now plays) as he was continuously being told by his physios: “don’t look down, always look up”. He realised that by playing Badminton he would be forced to do just that!

Martin McEllhatton of Wheelpower, an organisation instrumental in providing much of the funding that made the event possible, stressed the importance of the Games as a way of bringing sport to the attention of young amputees. He pointed out that the inclusion of young people with disabilities into mainstream education means that they often don’t get to hear about opportunities available to them.

One of the enthusiastic participants, David Gardner, was also one of the most recent amputees to attend. David had his leg amputated as a result of the  7/7 bombings where he was one of  the Edgeware Road tube victims. Writing to Kiera he congratulated her and David on their wonderful achievement:

“Thank you very much for an absolutely extraordinary weekend! I thought the work you and David Hilton put into the organisation of the Games really was wonderful and paid off.

We left after lunch on Sunday, getting home in the sun in time for some Sainsbury’s shopping and winding down for today and back-to-work.

Not too late tho’ for Keith Delderfield to guide David B and Lady Bader to the Stadium so we could say ‘Hello’ before we left.

Angela, I and Matthew really enjoyed our time – and Matthew especially enjoyed his warm swim.

I was truly amazed by some of the people there and their feats. I know my C-Leg hasn’t arrived yet, but I seemed to be the only character with a covered “leg”.

I thought Martine Wright was a gutsy volunteer at everything on Saturday, but missed her on Sunday.

And you (Kiera) rather put me to shame, although I did manage some table tennis, wheelchair tennis (which I’d like to follow up – and I never got time to have that chat with Lynn Parker who knows my SA friend, Craig Fairall), badminton, swimming, sitting volleyball (the chap named Tom was a great guy) and indoor bowls.

The volleyball left me with aching hands on the Sunday but that’s fine. There’s also a group of guys in North London who play regular badminton who I hope to link up with.

I didn’t get to play basketball but did have quite a few chats with Gordon Perry who gave me his card. He reminded me of Craig with his strength and cussedness.

I hope the rest of Sunday went well and that you are pleased with how it all went.”

David Bickers, Chairman of the Douglas Bader Foundation, also congratulated David Hilton and Kiera Roche on their achievement, writing to David Hilton:

“The Douglas Bader Foundation, for whom Kiera was working, was very supportive of this initiative , and would like to be involved ongoing as it represents very strongly our DBF rationale of continuing to create and be involved in ‘Inspirational’ activities that best represent Douglas’ own get up and go !”