Latest News

Oar-some!!!

Tuesday 15^th November saw the Tony Blair Sports Foundation host a special event in partnership with the Percy Hedley Sports Academy in North Tyneside. Special invitations had gone out and representatives from Barclays Bank, Deloitte, Ryder Architecture and Northumbrian Police were present to learn more about how the charity is working towards introducing adaptive indoor rowing training programmes and how they can get involved in supporting the Foundation’s Get Going Get Rowing school competition across the North East.

The day kicked off with the young people from Percy Hedley competing on rowing machines provided by Concept2 that were wired up to a live screen. This proved to be an exciting 20 minutes as the enthusiasm and competitive nature of the young participants translated through the entire room. With a taster of how the Get Going, Get Rowing programme can motivate and inspire young people of all abilities, Jeanette Pickard, CEO of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, explained to the group a little about the Foundation and how their organisations can get involved and be a part of the project through staff involvement and sponsorship opportunities.

With Caroline MacDonald present at the event (current British Adaptive Arms Only Champion) the spectrum of participation from grassroots through to elite could be seen as she talked about how the sport has changed her life and her dedication to achieving her goals. Caroline’s commitment to rowing is evident as she explained how she trains 6 days a week and gets up every morning at 5:30am to row in her garage! Onlookers got a real insight to adaptive rowing after a demonstration led by Caroline’s coach Greg Beswick. Representatives from the organisations present were then invited to ‘take their jackets off’ and have a go themselves!!