It was both gratifying and poignant, therefore, to hear from Stuart Scott, one of the pilots at the thoroughly enjoyable and successful Flying Day at White Waltham last weekend. Stuart is one of a syndicate of 12 who own Mike Whiskey (G-BEMW), a rather beautiful Piper PA-28-181 Archer for those of you who want the technical bits!

Mike Whiskey captured in the air by Stuart Scott

Stuart and 4 of his fellow owner/pilots, Pierre Wery, Ed Bowden, Paul Stanley & Mark Hillebrand, along with other pilot members of the West London Aero Club, took turns to fly several of our Bader Braves over the White Waltham area on Sunday and he has very kindly sent a selection of photographs he took during the day. We hope that some of his fascinating aerial shots will remind Braves who flew that day of some of the scenery and landmarks they saw from the air and hopefully bring back some happy memories of the day. We know that Stuart, a keen photographer, has already kindly sent photographs to the Braves that he and and fellow members of the syndicate took up in Mike Whiskey.

Stuart and his fellow pilots have supported the DBF Young Aviators Days at White Waltham for the last 3 years (although, sadly, both events there last year had to be cancelled due to bad weather and the Olympics) and says how thrilled they are to be involved. For all of us who are fortunate enough to attend these Events, the Braves’ enjoyment is infectious and brings back for Stuart, and probably other pilots as well, his own excitement at taking his first flight in a light aircraft.

From the cockpit of Mike Whiskey – a pilot’s eye view

On behalf of our Braves and their families and carers, a huge thank you, Stuart, Pierre, Ed, Paul, Mark and the rest of the Mike Whiskey Syndicate and all who, through your support, participation and enthusiasm make these Flying Days not only possible but the truly uplifting days they are for so many.

All at the Douglas Bader Foundation are deeply grateful.

We hope to see you all next year and, in the meantime, here is a gallery of Stuart’s photographs of a wonderful day:

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A reminder about one of our valued Bader Golf Sponsors, Tivoli Lagos’, updates for 2013. There are some great opportunities so it’s well worth checking out. While obviously a wonderful location for golfers, I speak from experience when I say that Tivoli Lagos was a great place to stay as a non-golfer so non-golfing partners or visitors need not be left out!

Please go to the Sponsors’ Page (link below) for more information.

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As you will see from the  Sponsors’ Page, Tivoli Lagos have joined forces with another sponsor, Onyria Palmares, to create 2 Golf Tournaments this year which may be of interest to Bader Cup players and supporters. These should be very enjoyable tournaments and, with Tivoli Lagos and Onyria Palmares involved, you are guaranteed comfort and quality both on and off the Golf Course!

In its 26th year, still under the auspices of John Southwick – an amazing achievement – and now widely recognised to be Europe’s largest National Mixed Golf Tournament, the Bader Cup has raised annually considerable funds for the Douglas Bader Foundation. We are extremely grateful to John and to all our loyal sponsors for making the Tournament possible.

This 26th Year of the Bader Cup coincides with the 30th Anniversary Year of the Douglas Bader Foundation. We’re hoping that this will be the biggest and best yet so please, if you haven’t already done so, download your entry forms and join us. You will find details and information enabling you to do this by clicking HERE.

The DBF relies almost entirely on donations and fund-raising to continue its valuable work and, thanks to the Golf Clubs and competitors who enter and support us, each year the Bader Cup has played a considerable part in helping us to achieve that. Many thanks to you all.

Happy golfing in 2013!

I was lucky to be at the BADER BRAVES Young Aviators Day at the West London Aero Club at White Waltham Airfield yesterday (Sunday 12th May). As in previous years, the Club, their members and their wonderful pilots did us proud and ensured that the Braves and their families had a great day out. There’s no doubt it could have been warmer but the main thing was that, unlike last year, the weather held off long enough for all the Braves and (almost) everyone else keen to fly to be taken up.

There’s no doubt it could have been warmer…After the flight!

There’s no doubt it could have been warmer…  Sandy at the gate!

Sadly there was no tent this year – the wind did beat us in that respect despite some valiant efforts – but Sammy’s Cake Stall was a new and very welcome addition to the day. Many thanks to Sammy McNamara (brother of Brave, Morgan) for all his efforts baking a wide variety of very delicious (I know – I sampled most of them!) cakes to raise funds for the charity. A fantastic effort and much appreciated by all. Thanks too to Sammy’s mother, Angela, for her support and washing up! (If the McNamara name rings a bell, it’s because Sammy’s father, David, successfully tackled the 3-Peaks Challenge last year to raise funds for the DBF – a wonderful and much appreciated family support group.)

Sammy’s Cake Stall

Wonderful support from the Stewards

We are also, of course, enormously grateful to all at the West London Aero Club who put so much effort into creating such a wonderful atmosphere for the Flying Day. Their Stewards seemed to be everywhere, helping and assisting with great good humour and willingness and the pilots give their time so generously and with such understanding and enthusiasm. Picnic lunches with a choice of sandwiches were kindly provided and much appreciated by all. Sincere thanks to you all – without you these Events simply wouldn’t be possible.

Laying out the picnic lunches

As you know, we’re always delighted to hear from any Braves and their families about their experiences of the day and, of course, to receive any photographs you’re happy to share with other Braves. Please send in your thoughts, reports and pictures – we’d love to be able to publish them on the Website.

And so – a last big thank you to all the Braves and their families who attended. It was lovely to see you all there and it’s your participation, enthusiasm and enjoyment that make the day. We hope to see you all again soon!

A full report on Sunday’s Flying Day will follow shortly but here are the first few photographs to tide you over!

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The first BADER BRAVES Young Aviators Day of 2013 took place at Ulster Airfield on Bank Holiday Saturday, 4th May. As you’ll read from Keith Delderfield’s report below, we couldn’t have had a better start to the 2013 Programme.

There are more photographs to follow, so please keep checking in.

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Bader Braves Young Aviators off to a

Flier in 2013 at The Ulster Flying Club.

Twenty-six young Bader Braves and their families gathered on a bright morning last Saturday (4th May) at The Ulster Flying Club for the first Bader Braves Young Aviators Day of the 2013 season. This was the second time that the club had provided the venue for this event and just as previously, everyone at the club pulled out all of the stops to ensure that it was yet another brilliant and unforgettable day.

In an attempt to minimise any lengthy waiting for flights, the day was split into morning and afternoon sessions. During the lunchtime break some of the club members and their families provided a fantastic, seemingly endless, BBQ; Keith, Director of The DBF and organiser of the day, expressed concern after having seen just how much tucker a Brave could put away, that aircraft in the afternoon session may fail to get airborne!!! (They all did of course!)

A range of aircraft, including a Robinson R44 helicopter loaned by Aero-Heli, a commercial enterprise based at the venue, were generously made available by the flying club and some of their members. During the day Alderman Hamilton Gregory, Mayor of Newtownards (kneeling 3^rd from right)and MP for Strangford, Mr Jim Shannon (standing 2^nd from right) paid the event a visit and spent time chatting to the Bader Braves, their families and some of the volunteers.

“Photo courtesy of Newtownards Chronicle”

Despite the wind picking up during the afternoon and conditions becoming quite “exciting” for a while, everyone had a great time and by the time the day eventually drew to a close all had smiles on their faces and the clubhouse was echoing to cheers and comments from the Young Aviators ranging from fantastic, awesome, great to when is the next Bader Braves Young Aviators Day here?? Well it’s the 7^th September of course!!

None of our events would happen if it were not for the enthusiasm and support of the host clubs involved; this time we are indebted to Barry Wallace and his team at The Ulster Flying Club along with the committee, members and all the staff each of whom gave up so much effort and time to make sure our Ulster event was such a great day – THANK YOU UFC!!

NB More photos to follow!!!

Just to inform all BADER BRAVES who were thinking of attending the Young Aviators Day at the Moray Flying Club, Kinloss Barracks on Saturday 18th May that this event is now full and entries have been closed.

We are very sorry for any disappointment but there are currently still spaces available on the other Flying Days and we hope to see you at an alternative venue.

If you’d like to book a place at any of the other Young Aviators Days please fill out and send the form below being sure to remember to select your chosen event from the drop down menu at the top.

Alternatively, or for more information, please contact Keith Delderfield:

Mobile: +44 (0) 7831 596015

Snail Mail: The Douglas Bader Foundation Administration Office, 45 Dundale Rd., Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 5BU

Fax: +44 (0) 1442 826662

Email: douglasbaderfdn@btinternet.com

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Bader Braves Young Aviators Day

REGISTRATION & AUTHORISATION FORM

Please select the Young Aviators Day you'd like to attend. Please note that, especially where we have 2 Flying Days at the same airfield, we will prioritise Bader Braves who have not attended before. Ulster Flying Club (1) - Sat 4th May (completed) West London Aero Club - Sun 12th May (completed) Moray Flying Club - Sat 18th May (event full) (completed) Haverfordwest Airport - Sat 8th June Goodwood Aero Club - Sun 23rd June Dunkeswell Aerodrome - Sat 29th June Scottish Aero Club - Sat 6th July Shropshire Aero Club - Sat 20th July RAF Cranwell - Sun 11th Aug Cornwall Flying Club - Sat 17th Aug Ulster Flying Club (2) - Sat 7th Sept RAF Waddington - Sat 14th Sept

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE CAN NOT ACCEPT APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AFTER 6.00pm ON THE WEDNESDAY BEFORE THE SELECTED FLYING DAY

Young Pilot's Name

Date of Birth

(On calendar first select year then, using the directional arrows, find the month and click on the date of birth. You'll end up with a format like this: --/--/---- )

Address

Postcode *

Tel No (no spaces)

Mobile No (no spaces)

Email Address *

Nature of disability

Do you have any special requirements as a result?

Please let us know if there's anything that would make attending the Event easier for you

Wheelchair user?

Yes

No

Please say when you'd like to take your flight using the check boxes below. (Leave blank if no preference):

Morning

Afternoon

We'll do our best to meet your requirements although this will depend on demand and availability.

Do you need to be accompanied for the flight?

Yes

No

If you can fly unescorted with the pilot, it means you could go up in a 2-seater and may save you a possible lengthy wait!

Will this be your first Bader Braves Young Aviators Day?

Yes

No

Names of adults (over 16) that you are bringing (Name / Date of Birth)

Names of under 16s that you are bringing (Name / Date of Birth)

PLEASE ASK YOUR PARENTS TO SIGN THIS FORM AND SEND IT BACK TO ME IMMEDIATELY TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE :-

I (Full name please) *

of (Full address including postcode) *

give my permission for *

(& all other members of my family should the opportunity arise) to take part in the Bader Braves Young Aviators Day and to be flown in a light aircraft at the event. I understand and accept that any flight is taken entirely at our own risk and fully accept that no responsibility falls in any way upon the Douglas Bader Foundation, the event organisers, participating pilots, participating Flying Clubs. I further understand that photographs of the event may be taken and accept that by signing this form I am permitting any pictures which may contain images of any of my family members to be used for advertising or promotional purposes by The Douglas Bader Foundation and participating Flying Clubs.

NB. No child will be permitted to fly unless the event organisers are in receipt of this signed form of authority.

To help with security would you provide the following information about the vehicle you will be arriving in:-

a) Make & model of vehicle

b) Colour of vehicle

c) Registration Number

Please copy the words into the box below to show you're not a spambot!

Here is a great selection of photographs – a successful collaboration between DBF Trustee, photographer Robert Pascall, and DBF Director of Operations, Keith Delderfield (Robert took the photographs using Keith’s camera!) of the BADER GOLF Trophy held at the Royal Berkshire Golf Course on Monday 22nd April. It was a very successful day and, as can clearly be seen from the Gallery, a good time was had by all. As Keith Delderfield mentioned in his report, we were extremely lucky with the weather, the first sunny day for a long time with wind only getting up as the final players came in.

Sir Bruce Forsyth kindly spoke to the golfers after lunch and presented the prizes.

Sir Bruce Forsyth addressing the players and guests

Please contact us if you’d like to order photographs or to see them in higher definition. We’re sadly a bit limited for size on the Website.

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DBF Ambassadors, Wyn Jenkins and Margaret Biggs at the end of TEAM BADER Tandem Challenge Wales

After another steep learning curve I finally worked out how to upload a DVD onto YouTube and the result – eventually – is that you can now see photographer Sandra Demar’s footage of TEAM BADER, DBF Ambassadors and TEAM BADER founders, Wyn Jenkins and Margaret (Maggz) Biggs and fellow amputee cyclists, Gemma Trotter and Colin Davies, with their supporting cyclists crossing the line at The Mumbles after their Tandem Challenge Wales. 

Wyn and Maggz, both leg amputees completed the 200 mile ride on a tandem accompanied by Gemma and Colin, also both leg amputees, on 2-wheelers. They and their wonderful supporting cyclists from CMC (County Merlin Cycles ) took 4 days to complete the gruelling ride and this is the heart-warming footage of their arrival outside Verdi’s Restaurant at The Mumbles. Not a dry eye at the house!

Sincere thanks to Wyn and Maggz who undertook the challenge to raise funds for the Douglas Bader Foundation (it’s not too late to donate to their JustGiving Page). To County Cycles at Cross Hands, Llanelli, who made the event possible and to Sandra Demar for this film and the photos you can see on the latest News Post.

Hop on the bike to zoom to YouTube where you’ll be able to share the moment.

* Calling all BADER BRAVES! *

There are still a few places left on the Young Aviators Day at West London Aero Club, White Waltham on Sunday 12th May.

Those of you who have attended this day before will know that it’s a great event set in a lovely location and previous Flying Days have been a great success.  Place are limited and the last few will go quickly so act now to secure a place to avoid disappointment.

You can use the form below to book being sure to select “West London Aero Club” from the drop down menu.

Here are a few photos from previous Young Aviators Days at the West London Aero Club to whet your appetites and, for a personal accolade, please click on the BADER BRAVES Aeroplane to fly to Jessica Soanes’ report on her day at White Waltham.

If you’re new to our Young Aviators Days and would like to know more, please click on the link to go to the BADER BRAVES Flying Days Page where you will find further information.

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Bader Braves Young Aviators Day

REGISTRATION & AUTHORISATION FORM

Please select the Young Aviators Day you'd like to attend. Please note that, especially where we have 2 Flying Days at the same airfield, we will prioritise Bader Braves who have not attended before. Ulster Flying Club (1) - Sat 4th May (completed) West London Aero Club - Sun 12th May (completed) Moray Flying Club - Sat 18th May (event full) (completed) Haverfordwest Airport - Sat 8th June Goodwood Aero Club - Sun 23rd June Dunkeswell Aerodrome - Sat 29th June Scottish Aero Club - Sat 6th July Shropshire Aero Club - Sat 20th July RAF Cranwell - Sun 11th Aug Cornwall Flying Club - Sat 17th Aug Ulster Flying Club (2) - Sat 7th Sept RAF Waddington - Sat 14th Sept

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE CAN NOT ACCEPT APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AFTER 6.00pm ON THE WEDNESDAY BEFORE THE SELECTED FLYING DAY

Young Pilot's Name

Date of Birth

(On calendar first select year then, using the directional arrows, find the month and click on the date of birth. You'll end up with a format like this: --/--/---- )

Address

Postcode *

Tel No (no spaces)

Mobile No (no spaces)

Email Address *

Nature of disability

Do you have any special requirements as a result?

Please let us know if there's anything that would make attending the Event easier for you

Wheelchair user?

Yes

No

Please say when you'd like to take your flight using the check boxes below. (Leave blank if no preference):

Morning

Afternoon

We'll do our best to meet your requirements although this will depend on demand and availability.

Do you need to be accompanied for the flight?

Yes

No

If you can fly unescorted with the pilot, it means you could go up in a 2-seater and may save you a possible lengthy wait!

Will this be your first Bader Braves Young Aviators Day?

Yes

No

Names of adults (over 16) that you are bringing (Name / Date of Birth)

Names of under 16s that you are bringing (Name / Date of Birth)

PLEASE ASK YOUR PARENTS TO SIGN THIS FORM AND SEND IT BACK TO ME IMMEDIATELY TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE :-

I (Full name please) *

of (Full address including postcode) *

give my permission for *

(& all other members of my family should the opportunity arise) to take part in the Bader Braves Young Aviators Day and to be flown in a light aircraft at the event. I understand and accept that any flight is taken entirely at our own risk and fully accept that no responsibility falls in any way upon the Douglas Bader Foundation, the event organisers, participating pilots, participating Flying Clubs. I further understand that photographs of the event may be taken and accept that by signing this form I am permitting any pictures which may contain images of any of my family members to be used for advertising or promotional purposes by The Douglas Bader Foundation and participating Flying Clubs.

NB. No child will be permitted to fly unless the event organisers are in receipt of this signed form of authority.

To help with security would you provide the following information about the vehicle you will be arriving in:-

a) Make & model of vehicle

b) Colour of vehicle

c) Registration Number

Please copy the words into the box below to show you're not a spambot!

A RIDER’S STORY

When Margaret Biggs and I were invited to be Ambassadors for The Douglas Bader Foundation, we thought long and hard about ways in which we could raise awareness of the charity, attract some much needed finance and also attempt something that would put us under a degree of pressure.

As we were both cyclists, a challenge on two wheels seemed the logical way to go but then Peter Jones, a good friend and Director of County Cycles happened to mention that he had a tandem we could use and why don’t we ride down the length of Wales on it?  Riding my own bike whilst managing my disability is one thing but to share a bike with another amputee and remaining safe, was going to be a challenge in itself!!  I knew that Maggz (a very talented able-bodied and later a trail-blazing  paralympic cyclist) had ridden a tandem many years ago with her mum and when I asked if she fancied sharing a tandem with me on this ride, she was very positive……NO….CORRECTION…….FORGET THAT …… I LIED…….she was scared stiff, especially as I suggested I’d like to pilot the thing!!

With Maggz living in Southport over 200 miles away, training together was always going to be a problem and we actually only managed one training ride together and that was on a flat 22 mile stretch of the Millenium Coastal Pathway near Llanelli.  My other training rides saw Peter Jones on the back for one and my wife Marg (who surprisingly loved it) for the other three with a longest ride of just 33 miles.

Were we adequately prepared?  As we stood at the port in Holyhead holding the tandem for the pre-event photo-shoot, all sorts of doubts were starting to kick in.  We knew that if we could co-ordinate our push to get the tandem moving we’d be fine on the flat – in fact we knew that we could bomb along as it is a very fast bike.  The unknown factor would be the hills that we’d have to encounter especially on Day 3 on the way down to Lampeter – would we, between us, have the necessary “grunt” to get this steel-framed beast to the top of each climb, or would we need the help of other cyclists to push us up?

Ready for the “off” – nerves had really kicked in by now!!

 We are both right-sided amputees – Maggz below knee and me above, so we had to click our prosthetic legs into the cleats before getting into the start position.  I then had to get on the saddle (on tip-toe) with our prosthetic side at a quarter past three position on the pedals and then after a 3-2-1 count down we’d push away and Maggz, having the benefit of a knee joint would generate enough downward pressure on her prosthesis to get the cranks moving.  Once we had momentum we were away but we always had to be vigilant when stopping and invariably looked for a curb or bank so that we could unclip on our “good” side and coast to a stop.

Gemma Trotter and Colin Davies, both above knee amputees joined us on their own bikes along with able-bodied cyclists from my club in West Wales – CMC.  Sandra and Peter, both club members and owners of County Cycles, were also riding with us as well as providing the technical back-up.  Support  vehicles were driven by my wife Marg, Rob, Gemma’s husband and Marianne and her husband Jeff.  Marianne was particularly miffed that she couldn’t ride with us, having just broken her wrist in two places.  Three of our club-mates were coming up by train that morning but as they weren’t due to arrive until 12.30pm we had to leave Holyhead without them.  Little did we know that as we cycled past RAF Valley, a few miles down the road from Holyhead, they saw us as they passed in the opposite direction with their train well ahead of schedule.

It was great to see Wendy McCleave of The Douglas Bader Foundation and her husband Martin at the start.  They’d come up in their campervan and would be shadowing us all the way down – fantastic! The first part of the ride passed uneventfully along the A55 – this used to be the main road south but once they’d built the expressway, this road became very quiet and great to cycle on.  We used this time to get used to communicating with each other – “stop pedalling” “pedal” “change down/up” “signal”  “push hard/slow down”.  We’d found very early on that communication was vital – on one occasion, I didn’t tell Maggz that I was going to stop pedalling, the result being that her prosthetic leg came adrift of the cleat holding her leg onto the pedal.  Apparently it was quite a sight seeing Maggz’ right leg going into “frantic” mode!!  Traffic started to build as we reached the 20 mile mark at the Menai Bridge – our first major land-mark which saw us re-enter mainland Wales. 

The whole group was going well and we were relieved to hear that the three late arrivals were also making good time and not too far behind us.  We stopped at the “Galeri” on the quay in Caernarfon for lunch – exactly 25 miles with everyone in good shape.  It had been bitterly cold on the run-in to the lunch stop as we turned into the strong westerly wind but thankfully, the rain was holding off.  An old college friend of mine, Aled Roberts who lives in Caernarfon met up with us for lunch.  He’s a keen cyclist and would have joined us for part of the ride had it not been for the fact that he’d just stepped off a flight from Boston.  We’re planning, as a club, to take up his offer to introduce us to his favourite cycling routes in North Wales.  Our “missing three” finally caught up with us and we set off for the second part of the day’s ride down to Porthmadog.  We cycled past the magnificent Castle in Caernarfon and picked up the cycle trail that would keep us off road for the next 20 miles.  My club mates were fantastic on this stretch, heading off in two’s to open and close the numerous gates on this trail – as a result the tandem didn’t have to stop for any of these obstacles.  Gemma and Colin, in the meantime, were both riding well – the only downside being the low cloud that obscured the breathtaking scenery of the Snowdonia mountain range.  Still no rain and we were mostly sheltered from the strong wind that whipped in off the sea.  The final 5 miles on the road were really quick with a final plunge into Porthmadog that saw the tandem hitting 40 mph!

Day 1 completed with an average speed of 14.8 mph but we were very concerned when Colin decided not to join us for a pre-booked meal at a local restaurant – he complained of feeling very tired and decided to have a take-away and get to bed early.  Margaret and Keith Powell were also looking rough and it was no surprise when they very sadly decided to return home the next morning – a wise move as Keith was running the London Marathon at the end of the week – awful to see them go though.  On the plus side, Colin looked much happier and was eager to get under way.

Day 2 – Porthmadog – Machynlleth

One thing we’d learned very early on was that the tandem is exceptionally quick. With both of us putting down a little power, it was very easy to get well over 20 mph and this was putting some of the riders under pressure. 

On the road between Porthmadog and Machynlleth – trying to keep the speed down!!

We’d had a chat over dinner the night before and decided that we would head out in front on Day 2 and try and keep a nice steady tempo.  So it was, that at 9.30am, we left the Travel Lodge in Porthmadog and headed at a sedate 12mph via a Toll Road on the coastal road towards Harlech.  This is a beautiful stretch of road and even the Toll Keeper was in a good mood – after hearing that we were a charity ride she waved all the riders and support vehicles through and asked us to donate the savings towards our fund-raising effort instead – brilliant!!  We knew that the weather would be deteriorating as the day progressed with high winds and heavy rain forecast later in the day.  I knew that the exposed section from Harlech to Barmouth would be brutal if we left it too late getting to that point.  We approached Harlech and the first solid climb of the day up to the town.  The castle looked majestic as we approached on the lower slopes and to our amazement, our steady tempo in an easy gear made the climb disappear very easily and we were soon entering the narrow town streets.  We stopped at the town car park (and toilets!!) only to hear from our support crew that Peter (Mr County) of all people had punctured on the ascent – we were also told that some members of the group had made a detour to the castle for photographs.  We were immediately behind schedule and the wind was getting stronger as we finally left Harlech.  It’s lucky we left early that morning because by the time we’d battled our way down to Barmouth in a strong headwind, the rain had also started to fall.  With even stronger winds due later in the afternoon, we didn’t waste too much time having lunch before heading off across the railway line and footpath on the wooden bridge across the estuary.  Before leaving, a little girl came up to me with a £5 note to add to our collection – her mum is an occupational therapist who was delighted that we were demonstrating to other disabled people that it could be very rewarding to push yourself a little harder to improve your own quality of life.

The ride across the very slippery wooden boards was a bit hairy and Gemma was adding very quickly to the £1 fines I was imposing on her for any offending language! 

Gemma riding with Sandra, “Mighty” and Anna just behind – notice the smiles!!

She is a remarkable young lady who, since having an osseo-integration procedure some years ago (this is when a pin is placed into the femur and the weight of the prosthesis is then taken through the skeleton rather than through a socket) has become the first amputee spin instructor in the World.  She’s an inspiration to so many people and you couldn’t wish to meet a nicer person – she’s also part of a terrific family unit with her husband Rob and little boy Archie.  Just as we got to the other side of the estuary, we stopped to allow everyone to catch up – a momentary stop and I thought that Maggz was still on the back of the tandem.  After we’d regrouped, I got in position and counted down in the usual way and pushed off.  There wasn’t the usual burst of power from the rear but I put this down to Maggz having another of her private picnics or texting/ phoning Wendy with regular updates of our progress.  I heard some shouts from behind but ignored them as I set about picking up some speed – the tandem was feeling decidedly sluggish though!  The shouts were now becoming quite frantic and when Maggz failed to give me her usual running commentary I realised that she was missing – I’d left her behind and she was very unimpressed as the tandem took off without her.  My club mates reckoned I did it on purpose but I’d never have done that on purpose ………would I Maggz?????

With Maggz safely back on board, we headed east on the sheltered part of the Aberdovey peninsular which was very undulating.  Colin’s lack of mileage before the event started taking it’s toll and he was very grateful for the assistance he received from Dave Pope and Guto Evans who gently helped him up the steeper inclines.  Once we rounded the headland, the fierce wind was in our faces and boy, was it getting strong!  We had momentary relief when we came across Wendy and Martin parked on the side of the road, although the communication system failed yet again between Maggz and I when I failed to warn her that we were about to veer across to the right hand side of the road where they were parked – Wendy claims to have heard Maggz from 100yds away giving me some grief!!  By now it was raining heavily and we were all looking forward to our arrival at the Wynnstay Hotel in Machynlleth.  We arrived at bang on 5.00pm to be greeted by another good friend of mine Roy Williams – we were also in college together and it was great to see he and his wife Yvonne there to meet us. Thankfully, they helped us get the tandem plus our two spare bikes (in case of breakdown) stored away and helped Marg get our luggage, plus Maggz’ and Colin’s up stairs to our rooms. After a tiring day co-ordinating with Rob in the back-up vehicles protecting us from the impatience of some drivers, this was the hardest part of the day for her.  We also had our two whippets with us and as the three of us had our cycling legs on it was difficult for us to carry too much luggage for fear of falling over – we were grateful Marg – honest!!

The Wynnstay is a typical old town hotel with rickety stairs and strangely angled floors that feel as if they’ve been treated with a strong dose of rum rather than varnish!  Some of us had an early bath that overly strained the hot water system, resulting in many of our party and other hotel guests making do with cold showers – they shouldn’t have gone to the bar first!!  These shortcomings were soon forgotten as we were treated to an excellent evening meal in a private dining room.  Maggz and I were feeling really good, if a little tired and we were looking forward to the second half of the journey. Jeff however, our technological phone wizard with an “app” for all occasions darkened the mood with his updated weather forecast for Day 3 – Gale force winds and torrential rain which may clear later in the day!

Day 3 Machynlleth – Lampeter 54 miles

Jeff’s “app” was right – the rain was horizontal and you could barely stand up in the wind let alone ride a bike!!  There were grim faces all round with some advocating a delayed start to give the weather a chance to ease, while others just wanted to get on with it, adopting the philosophy that once you’re wet you’re wet – end of!!  There were no guarantees that the weather would improve, so a decision was made that we’d head off at 10.00am.  Rob and Gemma’s mood wasn’t improved when they realised that their nearly new VW camper had been badly dented the night before when late night revellers made their way home from The Wynnstay.  In an age dominated by watching cameras, it was ironic that the hotel didn’t have any!  Peter had the strange if practical idea of putting the complimentary shower caps provided by the hotel over our cycling helmets to keep our heads dry and warm – it looked very strange but it worked!!  The 14 miles down to Aberystwyth seemed to take forever – the wind was incredibly strong and within minutes we were all soaked to the skin.  Jeff and Marianne headed off to look for a café so we could get a hot drink – they failed to find one, so Jeff in his inimitable way knocked up the landlord of a pub and coerced him into opening for us.  Luckily the pub floor was wooden because it was quickly saturated with water pouring off some very cold cyclists. The hosts at The Black Lion were fantastic and they also added to the growing amount of money we were collecting.  When we got into Aberystwyth, we met up with Denis Pook at PJ’s Snack bar on the promenade. He had cycled up from Lampeter that morning and after having to wait for nearly 2 hours for us to turn up was blue with cold. We got him some warm clothes and he soon felt a lot better – we all did after a really nice meal, made even better when the rain finally stopped and the sun momentarily came out – oh yes – the owner of PJ’s also contributed to the fundraising tally.

So far, it was the weather that was making the ride hard even though we had also encountered some stiff climbs.  The going was now going to get a lot harder as we headed in land. We were escaping the teeth of the gale but were about to encounter our first steep climb with a 17-18% gradient and over a mile long. We had a really enjoyable approach to the climb, which is on the Pontrhydfendigaid Road from Aberystwyth.

Colin on his Condor “Squadra” – showed a huge amount of guts and determination

We stopped at the bottom to get Colin’s bike in the back-up vehicle – having missed a great deal of training time, it was better for him to avoid risking injury by trying to be a hero. It took a great deal of persuasion but he eventually got in alongside Marg for a lift to the top.  Maggz and I were determined to make it up but we were acutely aware that if we stalled and left it too late to get our feet out of the cleats, we could get hurt if the tandem fell back on us.  There’s no easy approach to this hill, you’re straight onto it and straight up!  There’s a short respite after a quarter of a mile when you can pull onto a forestry road to get your breath back before you tackle the next really steep bit.  With heart rates hitting 180bpm we pushed hard over the steepest section and once over, we could relax and use an easy rhythm for the remainder of the climb to the top.  A few of the club riders had to stop and walk, so it was with a great deal of joint and personal satisfaction that Maggz and I, together with Gemma conquered this major challenge – it was a tough climb for able-bodied cyclists, so it was especially rewarding for the three of us to get up it without stopping!!  We turned south after the climb and any thoughts of an easy ride down to Tregaron were soon forgotten as the gale that hit us kept downhill speeds below 10mph – it was hard going!  We had a well-earned break in Tregaron before heading down the valley towards the village of Llanddewi Brefi – made famous by Matt Lucas in the “Only Gay in the Village sketch” from the “Little Britain” series.  We had the obligatory photo shoot at the village sign (to be posted later) and then we set off for our hotel in Lampeter.  This was a very long and tough 54 miles but the whole group was in remarkably high spirits.  The Falcondale Hotel is set in impressive grounds with a long and imposing driveway.  Marianne and Jeff were there to greet us and the hotel staff couldn’t do enough to make life as easy as possible.  They put the bikes away and took everyone’s luggage to their rooms without any fuss.  The rooms were huge and luxurious with, thankfully, copious amounts of hot water and some nice comfortable bath robes to relax in before heading down for dinner.  They put on a hot and cold buffet for us in a private room that was magnificent – I think I had at least three meals, as I was so hungry after the exertions of a very tough day.  We retired to a comfortable sitting room for a few drinks to relax before bed.  We had completed over 150 miles of our journey south and everyone was enjoying themselves, however, I knew from a “recce” ride I did with Guto the month before, that the smiles would quickly disappear after the first mile of cycling the next morning!!   Before that however, we had a good night’s sleep and a sumptuous breakfast to look forward to – it was dawning on us that this fantastic adventure was going into it’s last day – and that was a bit sad for all concerned!

As we set off down the long driveway the next morning, the sun was shining and the birds were singing – even the wind was just a whisper.  We cycled slowly through a sleepy Lampeter and then the hard work started – a 4 mile 6-8% climb out from the town.  Maggz and I stuck the tandem in a low gear and kept a steady 90-100 rpm cadence to the top, with Gemma, Sandra, Anna and Phil just behind.  The rest of the group were supporting Colin and giving him the occasional push to keep his momentum up – he was working his socks off and showing great determination.  Once at the summit, we started a thrilling descent that had some fantastic bends and long straight stretches.  To sit on the back of a tandem as it plummets downhill at 43mph takes some guts – you’ve got no control and are at the mercy of the “pilot”.  Your cycling instincts kick in and you naturally want to brake at certain points and take the apexes in a certain way – but you can’t!!  I heard a wailing coming from the rear but I put this down to the wind-rush and the deterioration of my hearing!!  Poor Maggz, the day before we had been belting down a hill and although very careful about avoiding wet metal grills in the road, the back wheel did clip one on a bend that made the back step out a little – that was a “moment” for both of us and a salutary lesson to give these mini skid pans a wide birth.  I’m not saying that Maggz was at all unnerved by this very rapid descent but she did a make straight for the loo at the garage we stopped at!! 

Word came through that big Adrian had broken his bottom bracket (on his bike) and that he and Peter were using a spare bike off Marg’s car – mine in fact, so it was fortuitous we thought of bringing them.  Big Adrian or “Mighty” as he’s affectionately known in rugby circles, was a really good prop forward, who played for his country at junior level and also for the famous Llanelli Scarlets.  After retiring, his weight ballooned to 27st and he was also smoking to excess.  He and Anna decided to take up cycling and in the last year he’s shed 7 stone and stopped smoking entirely – he loves his new sport.  Anna has a medical condition that leaves her tired at times but she has become one of the best hill climbers in the club – they both love cycling, especially in the company of other like-minded people.  Although I’m an amputee, with a reduced power level, I can still cycle with the other club members on equal terms.  What I love is the fact that no allowances are made for my disability and nor would I want them to.  I pride myself that I can get up 99% of the hills in our area (The Devil’s Staircase with a 25% climb beat me) using a Compact front chain ring and a 32 tooth rear cassette.  Changing from a round chain-ring to Rotor Q Rings and Cranks enabled me to ditch my old triple front chain-ring.  I can keep a high pedalling cadence on the hills and generate a good amount of power on the flat – I love my bike and when I’m cycling I often forget about my disability completely.

With Peter and Adrian back with us, we headed for Llandeilo via Talley along a very undulating and busy road.  The back-up cars did a fantastic job along this stretch which is full of blind crests – they slowed down following traffic and kept us safe on what can be a dangerous section of road.  It was very strange to pass within a mile of my house and avoid the turning I would normally take when heading home.  We dropped down into Llandeilo for lunch at Rosetta’s.  The owners – Gill and Daryl Gittins had prepared a buffet for us in a private room and had also made a provision to store our bikes.  Daryl was on TV recently having his latest brain operation filmed as they “debulked” a large brain tumour, the complications of which led to him losing his leg below the knee a few years ago.  They can’t eradicate this tumour and he has to have regular operations to minimise it’s spread….but it doesn’t stop him cycling with us!!  He, Gill and their sons are incredibly positive people.  There to meet us in Llandeilo were Roy Bergiers and Meredydd James  - both ex-college friends of mine.  Roy played for Llanelli, Wales and the British Lions and became a local legend when his club Llanelli beat the 1972 New Zealand “All Blacks” with Roy scoring the only try of the game.  Meredydd is a larger than life character with a wicked sense of humour.  He captained Bridgend RFC and is full of stories about the shenanigans that go on in the front row of scrums.  He was recently honoured with an MBE for services to Education after a successful stint as a headmaster doing a huge amount to help his community with innovative initiatives.  To have these guys hurling abuse and encouragement in equal measure was incredibly uplifting as we made our way to Rosetta’s.  They then spent the next hour telling stories over lunch trying their best to embarrass me in front of our group – I just sat back and pondered how lucky Marg and I are to have such an amazing and happy life despite the setbacks of 2008 – we’ve got fantastic family and friends.

With lunch coming to a reluctant end, we headed off on the final 30 miles to the Mumbles, Swansea.  Any thoughts that this would be a relaxing final push were soon dispelled with some gruelling climbs – but there were also high- speed descents!  Maggz spent her time keeping Wendy updated on our progress and embracing any riders who came close enough – she was like a human windmill on the back and obviously thrilled that we were getting nearer our goal.  The traffic down to Gorseinon and then over to Gowerton was very heavy and we all wished we could have been back in the solitude of the Welsh countryside where the only noises came from wildlife and the millions of sheep and newly born lambs.

We were slightly ahead of schedule and beginning to wonder how we could delay the ride to get to Verdi’s at the appointed time of 5.00pm, when Anita punctured on the cycle path that took us down to the coast.  As we swung onto the cycle way, we could see Verdi’s on the sweep of the bay 2 miles away and knew that a crowd was gathering to greet us. 

As we got nearer, I suddenly started to feel quite emotional – a really strange feeling.  The ride had been hard of course but the training beforehand had seen to it that my conditioning was up to the challenge – so it wasn’t emotion triggered by fatigue!  Maggz clapped me on the shoulder in triumph as we approached the finishing line (yes – there was a finishing tape!) and as I looked across at Gemma on one side of the tandem and Colin on the other (the rest of the group had made us ride up front on the run in to the finish) I felt immensely proud that we were sending a really positive message to others in the limbloss community.  We had ridden the length of Wales with able-bodied cyclists who didn’t see us as amputees but as individuals who happened to enjoy cycling.  While it’s important to educate people to see past a disability to the individual beyond but it’s equally important for disabled people not to see themselves as victims.  There’s an incredibly happy life to be lived if you’re prepared to meet the challenge of making it so.

Marg, Rob, (Archie of course), Marianne and Jeff, and all our other friends and supporters were there to greet us, as were Wendy and Martin. Also there was Bron Jones who had tearfully left us the day before as she had to go back to her teaching job on the Monday – she was gutted she couldn’t ride the last day with us.  I swear that most had tears in their eyes as we crossed that line – it was a very special moment!!

The “Team” with supporters and vehicles at the finish in the Mumbles.

Pictures were taken of the happy group and we then went into Verdi’s for a well-earned meal – within minutes the talk had turned to planning the next venture!!

Sharing the tandem for four days with Maggz was an incredible experience.  We had to work together as a team and in doing so, we conquered all the tough climbs and horrible weather conditions that tried their best to dampen our spirits.  We, Gemma and Colin had a memorable time and enjoyed each other’s company but would be the first to acknowledge that our task would have been so much more difficult without the support of those on the trip with us – thank you to everyone involved who helped make this happen.

Roll on the next venture for TEAM BADER – any budding amputee cyclists out there who would like to join us next time should contact Margaret Biggs through the DBF web-site – you’ll have the time of your lives!!

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We will soon be publishing a Programme of Cycling Events and we hope that you’ll join TEAM BADER Cycling for at least one of them. Follow the link at the bottom of Wyn’s Blog to visit the TEAM BADER Cycling Page for more information and please keep checking the Website for more details.

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200 MILES ON A TANDEM

A RIDER’S STORY

When Margaret Biggs and I were invited to be Ambassadors for The Douglas Bader Foundation, we thought long and hard about ways in which we could raise awareness of the charity, attract some much needed finance and also attempt something that would put us under a degree of pressure.

As we were both cyclists, a challenge on two wheels seemed the logical way to go but then Peter Jones, a good friend and Director of County Cycles happened to mention that he had a tandem we could use and why don’t we ride down the length of Wales on it?  Riding my own bike whilst managing my disability is one thing but to share a bike with another amputee and remaining safe, was going to be a challenge in itself!!  I knew that Maggz (a very talented able-bodied and later a trail-blazing  paralympic cyclist) had ridden a tandem many years ago with her mum and when I asked if she fancied sharing a tandem with me on this ride, she was very positive……NO….CORRECTION…….FORGET THAT …… I LIED…….she was scared stiff, especially as I suggested I’d like to pilot the thing!!

With Maggz living in Southport over 200 miles away, training together was always going to be a problem and we actually only managed one training ride together and that was on a flat 22 mile stretch of the Millenium Coastal Pathway near Llanelli.  My other training rides saw Peter Jones on the back for one and my wife Marg (who surprisingly loved it) for the other three with a longest ride of just 33 miles.

Were we adequately prepared?  As we stood at the port in Holyhead holding the tandem for the pre-event photo-shoot, all sorts of doubts were starting to kick in.  We knew that if we could co-ordinate our push to get the tandem moving we’d be fine on the flat – in fact we knew that we could bomb along as it is a very fast bike.  The unknown factor would be the hills that we’d have to encounter especially on Day 3 on the way down to Lampeter – would we, between us, have the necessary “grunt” to get this steel-framed beast to the top of each climb, or would we need the help of other cyclists to push us up?

Ready for the “off” – nerves had really kicked in by now!!

 We are both right-sided amputees – Maggz below knee and me above, so we had to click our prosthetic legs into the cleats before getting into the start position.  I then had to get on the saddle (on tip-toe) with our prosthetic side at a quarter past three position on the pedals and then after a 3-2-1 count down we’d push away and Maggz, having the benefit of a knee joint would generate enough downward pressure on her prosthesis to get the cranks moving.  Once we had momentum we were away but we always had to be vigilant when stopping and invariably looked for a curb or bank so that we could unclip on our “good” side and coast to a stop.

Gemma Trotter and Colin Davies, both above knee amputees joined us on their own bikes along with able-bodied cyclists from my club in West Wales – CMC.  Sandra and Peter, both club members and owners of County Cycles, were also riding with us as well as providing the technical back-up.  Support  vehicles were driven by my wife Marg, Rob, Gemma’s husband and Marianne and her husband Jeff.  Marianne was particularly miffed that she couldn’t ride with us, having just broken her wrist in two places.  Three of our club-mates were coming up by train that morning but as they weren’t due to arrive until 12.30pm we had to leave Holyhead without them.  Little did we know that as we cycled past RAF Valley, a few miles down the road from Holyhead, they saw us as they passed in the opposite direction with their train well ahead of schedule.

It was great to see Wendy McCleave of The Douglas Bader Foundation and her husband Martin at the start.  They’d come up in their campervan and would be shadowing us all the way down – fantastic! The first part of the ride passed uneventfully along the A55 – this used to be the main road south but once they’d built the expressway, this road became very quiet and great to cycle on.  We used this time to get used to communicating with each other – “stop pedalling” “pedal” “change down/up” “signal”  “push hard/slow down”.  We’d found very early on that communication was vital – on one occasion, I didn’t tell Maggz that I was going to stop pedalling, the result being that her prosthetic leg came adrift of the cleat holding her leg onto the pedal.  Apparently it was quite a sight seeing Maggz’ right leg going into “frantic” mode!!  Traffic started to build as we reached the 20 mile mark at the Menai Bridge – our first major land-mark which saw us re-enter mainland Wales. 

The whole group was going well and we were relieved to hear that the three late arrivals were also making good time and not too far behind us.  We stopped at the “Galeri” on the quay in Caernarfon for lunch – exactly 25 miles with everyone in good shape.  It had been bitterly cold on the run-in to the lunch stop as we turned into the strong westerly wind but thankfully, the rain was holding off.  An old college friend of mine, Aled Roberts who lives in Caernarfon met up with us for lunch.  He’s a keen cyclist and would have joined us for part of the ride had it not been for the fact that he’d just stepped off a flight from Boston.  We’re planning, as a club, to take up his offer to introduce us to his favourite cycling routes in North Wales.  Our “missing three” finally caught up with us and we set off for the second part of the day’s ride down to Porthmadog.  We cycled past the magnificent Castle in Caernarfon and picked up the cycle trail that would keep us off road for the next 20 miles.  My club mates were fantastic on this stretch, heading off in two’s to open and close the numerous gates on this trail – as a result the tandem didn’t have to stop for any of these obstacles.  Gemma and Colin, in the meantime, were both riding well – the only downside being the low cloud that obscured the breathtaking scenery of the Snowdonia mountain range.  Still no rain and we were mostly sheltered from the strong wind that whipped in off the sea.  The final 5 miles on the road were really quick with a final plunge into Porthmadog that saw the tandem hitting 40 mph!

Day 1 completed with an average speed of 14.8 mph but we were very concerned when Colin decided not to join us for a pre-booked meal at a local restaurant – he complained of feeling very tired and decided to have a take-away and get to bed early.  Margaret and Keith Powell were also looking rough and it was no surprise when they very sadly decided to return home the next morning – a wise move as Keith was running the London Marathon at the end of the week – awful to see them go though.  On the plus side, Colin looked much happier and was eager to get under way.

Day 2 – Porthmadog – Machynlleth

One thing we’d learned very early on was that the tandem is exceptionally quick. With both of us putting down a little power, it was very easy to get well over 20 mph and this was putting some of the riders under pressure. 

On the road between Porthmadog and Machynlleth – trying to keep the speed down!!

We’d had a chat over dinner the night before and decided that we would head out in front on Day 2 and try and keep a nice steady tempo.  So it was, that at 9.30am, we left the Travel Lodge in Porthmadog and headed at a sedate 12mph via a Toll Road on the coastal road towards Harlech.  This is a beautiful stretch of road and even the Toll Keeper was in a good mood – after hearing that we were a charity ride she waved all the riders and support vehicles through and asked us to donate the savings towards our fund-raising effort instead – brilliant!!  We knew that the weather would be deteriorating as the day progressed with high winds and heavy rain forecast later in the day.  I knew that the exposed section from Harlech to Barmouth would be brutal if we left it too late getting to that point.  We approached Harlech and the first solid climb of the day up to the town.  The castle looked majestic as we approached on the lower slopes and to our amazement, our steady tempo in an easy gear made the climb disappear very easily and we were soon entering the narrow town streets.  We stopped at the town car park (and toilets!!) only to hear from our support crew that Peter (Mr County) of all people had punctured on the ascent – we were also told that some members of the group had made a detour to the castle for photographs.  We were immediately behind schedule and the wind was getting stronger as we finally left Harlech.  It’s lucky we left early that morning because by the time we’d battled our way down to Barmouth in a strong headwind, the rain had also started to fall.  With even stronger winds due later in the afternoon, we didn’t waste too much time having lunch before heading off across the railway line and footpath on the wooden bridge across the estuary.  Before leaving, a little girl came up to me with a £5 note to add to our collection – her mum is an occupational therapist who was delighted that we were demonstrating to other disabled people that it could be very rewarding to push yourself a little harder to improve your own quality of life.

The ride across the very slippery wooden boards was a bit hairy and Gemma was adding very quickly to the £1 fines I was imposing on her for any offending language! 

Gemma riding with Sandra, “Mighty” and Anna just behind – notice the smiles!!

She is a remarkable young lady who, since having an osseo-integration procedure some years ago (this is when a pin is placed into the femur and the weight of the prosthesis is then taken through the skeleton rather than through a socket) has become the first amputee spin instructor in the World.  She’s an inspiration to so many people and you couldn’t wish to meet a nicer person – she’s also part of a terrific family unit with her husband Rob and little boy Archie.  Just as we got to the other side of the estuary, we stopped to allow everyone to catch up – a momentary stop and I thought that Maggz was still on the back of the tandem.  After we’d regrouped, I got in position and counted down in the usual way and pushed off.  There wasn’t the usual burst of power from the rear but I put this down to Maggz having another of her private picnics or texting/ phoning Wendy with regular updates of our progress.  I heard some shouts from behind but ignored them as I set about picking up some speed – the tandem was feeling decidedly sluggish though!  The shouts were now becoming quite frantic and when Maggz failed to give me her usual running commentary I realised that she was missing – I’d left her behind and she was very unimpressed as the tandem took off without her.  My club mates reckoned I did it on purpose but I’d never have done that on purpose ………would I Maggz?????

With Maggz safely back on board, we headed east on the sheltered part of the Aberdovey peninsular which was very undulating.  Colin’s lack of mileage before the event started taking it’s toll and he was very grateful for the assistance he received from Dave Pope and Guto Evans who gently helped him up the steeper inclines.  Once we rounded the headland, the fierce wind was in our faces and boy, was it getting strong!  We had momentary relief when we came across Wendy and Martin parked on the side of the road, although the communication system failed yet again between Maggz and I when I failed to warn her that we were about to veer across to the right hand side of the road where they were parked – Wendy claims to have heard Maggz from 100yds away giving me some grief!!  By now it was raining heavily and we were all looking forward to our arrival at the Wynnstay Hotel in Machynlleth.  We arrived at bang on 5.00pm to be greeted by another good friend of mine Roy Williams – we were also in college together and it was great to see he and his wife Yvonne there to meet us. Thankfully, they helped us get the tandem plus our two spare bikes (in case of breakdown) stored away and helped Marg get our luggage, plus Maggz’ and Colin’s up stairs to our rooms. After a tiring day co-ordinating with Rob in the back-up vehicles protecting us from the impatience of some drivers, this was the hardest part of the day for her.  We also had our two whippets with us and as the three of us had our cycling legs on it was difficult for us to carry too much luggage for fear of falling over – we were grateful Marg – honest!!

The Wynnstay is a typical old town hotel with rickety stairs and strangely angled floors that feel as if they’ve been treated with a strong dose of rum rather than varnish!  Some of us had an early bath that overly strained the hot water system, resulting in many of our party and other hotel guests making do with cold showers – they shouldn’t have gone to the bar first!!  These shortcomings were soon forgotten as we were treated to an excellent evening meal in a private dining room.  Maggz and I were feeling really good, if a little tired and we were looking forward to the second half of the journey. Jeff however, our technological phone wizard with an “app” for all occasions darkened the mood with his updated weather forecast for Day 3 – Gale force winds and torrential rain which may clear later in the day!

Day 3 Machynlleth – Lampeter 54 miles

Jeff’s “app” was right – the rain was horizontal and you could barely stand up in the wind let alone ride a bike!!  There were grim faces all round with some advocating a delayed start to give the weather a chance to ease, while others just wanted to get on with it, adopting the philosophy that once you’re wet you’re wet – end of!!  There were no guarantees that the weather would improve, so a decision was made that we’d head off at 10.00am.  Rob and Gemma’s mood wasn’t improved when they realised that their nearly new VW camper had been badly dented the night before when late night revellers made their way home from The Wynnstay.  In an age dominated by watching cameras, it was ironic that the hotel didn’t have any!  Peter had the strange if practical idea of putting the complimentary shower caps provided by the hotel over our cycling helmets to keep our heads dry and warm – it looked very strange but it worked!!  The 14 miles down to Aberystwyth seemed to take forever – the wind was incredibly strong and within minutes we were all soaked to the skin.  Jeff and Marianne headed off to look for a café so we could get a hot drink – they failed to find one, so Jeff in his inimitable way knocked up the landlord of a pub and coerced him into opening for us.  Luckily the pub floor was wooden because it was quickly saturated with water pouring off some very cold cyclists. The hosts at The Black Lion were fantastic and they also added to the growing amount of money we were collecting.  When we got into Aberystwyth, we met up with Denis Pook at PJ’s Snack bar on the promenade. He had cycled up from Lampeter that morning and after having to wait for nearly 2 hours for us to turn up was blue with cold. We got him some warm clothes and he soon felt a lot better – we all did after a really nice meal, made even better when the rain finally stopped and the sun momentarily came out – oh yes – the owner of PJ’s also contributed to the fundraising tally.

So far, it was the weather that was making the ride hard even though we had also encountered some stiff climbs.  The going was now going to get a lot harder as we headed in land. We were escaping the teeth of the gale but were about to encounter our first steep climb with a 17-18% gradient and over a mile long. We had a really enjoyable approach to the climb, which is on the Pontrhydfendigaid Road from Aberystwyth.

Colin on his Condor “Squadra” – showed a huge amount of guts and determination

We stopped at the bottom to get Colin’s bike in the back-up vehicle – having missed a great deal of training time, it was better for him to avoid risking injury by trying to be a hero. It took a great deal of persuasion but he eventually got in alongside Marg for a lift to the top.  Maggz and I were determined to make it up but we were acutely aware that if we stalled and left it too late to get our feet out of the cleats, we could get hurt if the tandem fell back on us.  There’s no easy approach to this hill, you’re straight onto it and straight up!  There’s a short respite after a quarter of a mile when you can pull onto a forestry road to get your breath back before you tackle the next really steep bit.  With heart rates hitting 180bpm we pushed hard over the steepest section and once over, we could relax and use an easy rhythm for the remainder of the climb to the top.  A few of the club riders had to stop and walk, so it was with a great deal of joint and personal satisfaction that Maggz and I, together with Gemma conquered this major challenge – it was a tough climb for able-bodied cyclists, so it was especially rewarding for the three of us to get up it without stopping!!  We turned south after the climb and any thoughts of an easy ride down to Tregaron were soon forgotten as the gale that hit us kept downhill speeds below 10mph – it was hard going!  We had a well-earned break in Tregaron before heading down the valley towards the village of Llanddewi Brefi – made famous by Matt Lucas in the “Only Gay in the Village sketch” from the “Little Britain” series.  We had the obligatory photo shoot at the village sign (to be posted later) and then we set off for our hotel in Lampeter.  This was a very long and tough 54 miles but the whole group was in remarkably high spirits.  The Falcondale Hotel is set in impressive grounds with a long and imposing driveway.  Marianne and Jeff were there to greet us and the hotel staff couldn’t do enough to make life as easy as possible.  They put the bikes away and took everyone’s luggage to their rooms without any fuss.  The rooms were huge and luxurious with, thankfully, copious amounts of hot water and some nice comfortable bath robes to relax in before heading down for dinner.  They put on a hot and cold buffet for us in a private room that was magnificent – I think I had at least three meals, as I was so hungry after the exertions of a very tough day.  We retired to a comfortable sitting room for a few drinks to relax before bed.  We had completed over 150 miles of our journey south and everyone was enjoying themselves, however, I knew from a “recce” ride I did with Guto the month before, that the smiles would quickly disappear after the first mile of cycling the next morning!!   Before that however, we had a good night’s sleep and a sumptuous breakfast to look forward to – it was dawning on us that this fantastic adventure was going into it’s last day – and that was a bit sad for all concerned!

As we set off down the long driveway the next morning, the sun was shining and the birds were singing – even the wind was just a whisper.  We cycled slowly through a sleepy Lampeter and then the hard work started – a 4 mile 6-8% climb out from the town.  Maggz and I stuck the tandem in a low gear and kept a steady 90-100 rpm cadence to the top, with Gemma, Sandra, Anna and Phil just behind.  The rest of the group were supporting Colin and giving him the occasional push to keep his momentum up – he was working his socks off and showing great determination.  Once at the summit, we started a thrilling descent that had some fantastic bends and long straight stretches.  To sit on the back of a tandem as it plummets downhill at 43mph takes some guts – you’ve got no control and are at the mercy of the “pilot”.  Your cycling instincts kick in and you naturally want to brake at certain points and take the apexes in a certain way – but you can’t!!  I heard a wailing coming from the rear but I put this down to the wind-rush and the deterioration of my hearing!!  Poor Maggz, the day before we had been belting down a hill and although very careful about avoiding wet metal grills in the road, the back wheel did clip one on a bend that made the back step out a little – that was a “moment” for both of us and a salutary lesson to give these mini skid pans a wide birth.  I’m not saying that Maggz was at all unnerved by this very rapid descent but she did a make straight for the loo at the garage we stopped at!! 

Word came through that big Adrian had broken his bottom bracket (on his bike) and that he and Peter were using a spare bike off Marg’s car – mine in fact, so it was fortuitous we thought of bringing them.  Big Adrian or “Mighty” as he’s affectionately known in rugby circles, was a really good prop forward, who played for his country at junior level and also for the famous Llanelli Scarlets.  After retiring, his weight ballooned to 27st and he was also smoking to excess.  He and Anna decided to take up cycling and in the last year he’s shed 7 stone and stopped smoking entirely – he loves his new sport.  Anna has a medical condition that leaves her tired at times but she has become one of the best hill climbers in the club – they both love cycling, especially in the company of other like-minded people.  Although I’m an amputee, with a reduced power level, I can still cycle with the other club members on equal terms.  What I love is the fact that no allowances are made for my disability and nor would I want them to.  I pride myself that I can get up 99% of the hills in our area (The Devil’s Staircase with a 25% climb beat me) using a Compact front chain ring and a 32 tooth rear cassette.  Changing from a round chain-ring to Rotor Q Rings and Cranks enabled me to ditch my old triple front chain-ring.  I can keep a high pedalling cadence on the hills and generate a good amount of power on the flat – I love my bike and when I’m cycling I often forget about my disability completely.

With Peter and Adrian back with us, we headed for Llandeilo via Talley along a very undulating and busy road.  The back-up cars did a fantastic job along this stretch which is full of blind crests – they slowed down following traffic and kept us safe on what can be a dangerous section of road.  It was very strange to pass within a mile of my house and avoid the turning I would normally take when heading home.  We dropped down into Llandeilo for lunch at Rosetta’s.  The owners – Gill and Daryl Gittins had prepared a buffet for us in a private room and had also made a provision to store our bikes.  Daryl was on TV recently having his latest brain operation filmed as they “debulked” a large brain tumour, the complications of which led to him losing his leg below the knee a few years ago.  They can’t eradicate this tumour and he has to have regular operations to minimise it’s spread….but it doesn’t stop him cycling with us!!  He, Gill and their sons are incredibly positive people.  There to meet us in Llandeilo were Roy Bergiers and Meredydd James  - both ex-college friends of mine.  Roy played for Llanelli, Wales and the British Lions and became a local legend when his club Llanelli beat the 1972 New Zealand “All Blacks” with Roy scoring the only try of the game.  Meredydd is a larger than life character with a wicked sense of humour.  He captained Bridgend RFC and is full of stories about the shenanigans that go on in the front row of scrums.  He was recently honoured with an MBE for services to Education after a successful stint as a headmaster doing a huge amount to help his community with innovative initiatives.  To have these guys hurling abuse and encouragement in equal measure was incredibly uplifting as we made our way to Rosetta’s.  They then spent the next hour telling stories over lunch trying their best to embarrass me in front of our group – I just sat back and pondered how lucky Marg and I are to have such an amazing and happy life despite the setbacks of 2008 – we’ve got fantastic family and friends.

With lunch coming to a reluctant end, we headed off on the final 30 miles to the Mumbles, Swansea.  Any thoughts that this would be a relaxing final push were soon dispelled with some gruelling climbs – but there were also high- speed descents!  Maggz spent her time keeping Wendy updated on our progress and embracing any riders who came close enough – she was like a human windmill on the back and obviously thrilled that we were getting nearer our goal.  The traffic down to Gorseinon and then over to Gowerton was very heavy and we all wished we could have been back in the solitude of the Welsh countryside where the only noises came from wildlife and the millions of sheep and newly born lambs.

We were slightly ahead of schedule and beginning to wonder how we could delay the ride to get to Verdi’s at the appointed time of 5.00pm, when Anita punctured on the cycle path that took us down to the coast.  As we swung onto the cycle way, we could see Verdi’s on the sweep of the bay 2 miles away and knew that a crowd was gathering to greet us. 

As we got nearer, I suddenly started to feel quite emotional – a really strange feeling.  The ride had been hard of course but the training beforehand had seen to it that my conditioning was up to the challenge – so it wasn’t emotion triggered by fatigue!  Maggz clapped me on the shoulder in triumph as we approached the finishing line (yes – there was a finishing tape!) and as I looked across at Gemma on one side of the tandem and Colin on the other (the rest of the group had made us ride up front on the run in to the finish) I felt immensely proud that we were sending a really positive message to others in the limbloss community.  We had ridden the length of Wales with able-bodied cyclists who didn’t see us as amputees but as individuals who happened to enjoy cycling.  While it’s important to educate people to see past a disability to the individual beyond but it’s equally important for disabled people not to see themselves as victims.  There’s an incredibly happy life to be lived if you’re prepared to meet the challenge of making it so.

Marg, Rob, (Archie of course), Marianne and Jeff, and all our other friends and supporters were there to greet us, as were Wendy and Martin. Also there was Bron Jones who had tearfully left us the day before as she had to go back to her teaching job on the Monday – she was gutted she couldn’t ride the last day with us.  I swear that most had tears in their eyes as we crossed that line – it was a very special moment!!

The “Team” with supporters and vehicles at the finish in the Mumbles.

Pictures were taken of the happy group and we then went into Verdi’s for a well-earned meal – within minutes the talk had turned to planning the next venture!!

Sharing the tandem for four days with Maggz was an incredible experience.  We had to work together as a team and in doing so, we conquered all the tough climbs and horrible weather conditions that tried their best to dampen our spirits.  We, Gemma and Colin had a memorable time and enjoyed each other’s company but would be the first to acknowledge that our task would have been so much more difficult without the support of those on the trip with us – thank you to everyone involved who helped make this happen.

Roll on the next venture for TEAM BADER – any budding amputee cyclists out there who would like to join us next time should contact Margaret Biggs through the DBF web-site – you’ll have the time of your lives!!

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* Please click HERE to go to the TEAM BADER Cycling Page where you can learn more about the philosophy behind TEAM BADER and TEAM BADER Cycling *

Victorious Team Bader and supporters with back up cars at The Mumbles – Sandra Demar

We are very grateful to photographer, Sandra Demar, who joined us at The Mumbles for the finish of the TEAM BADER Tandem Challenge Wales, to take some photographs and video footage. This was despite feeling considerably below par having been a recent victim of the Swansea Measles Epidemic!

In the Gallery below you can see some of her images. As with all the galleries, if you’d like to have a copy of one of the photographs or see unpublished or higher resolution images, please contact us. With grannies and eggs in mind – clicking on an image when in Picture List mode will increase its size and you can then use the arrows to view the page (there are 4 pages in the selection). Click on the image again to close it.

To see more coverage of the Team Bader Tandem Challenge Wales, please go to the News Section of the Website and click on Team Bader News or follow the link.

Exhausted but happy, Team Bader founders, Wyn Jenkins and Margaret Biggs at The Mumbles at the end of Team Bader Tandem Challenge, Wales – Sandra Demar

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The expedition will take place in August and Phil has promised us a full report on his return. We’ll greatly look forward to receiving that – it’ll make inspirational reading, I’m sure.

In the meantime I’m sure you’ll join us all at the DBF in wishing Phil a successful, rewarding and enjoyable venture.

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Borneo Community Expedition  August 2103

Borneo – Orangutans

During August 2013 I will be going to the Sabah region of Borneo, to help with various work based community projects:  I will be going with four of my students from school and will be working along side 25 other students from the UK.  This four-week expedition will be a challenge with physically demanding projects, high daytime temperatures and humidity.  I will particularly find it challenging, being a below knee amputee.  Our projects have been planned and organised through the organisation Camps International, whom have established many long-term projects in remote village communities, helping improve everyday lives of these communities.  The projects employ local people throughout the year, who work alongside students from the UK.

Although I do not yet know the projects I will be involved with until closer the time, previous projects have included assisting with ecology and wildlife conservation, re-forestation and helping protect the endangered wild orang-utans, design and construction of a safe outdoor kindergarten playground, a community recycling centre for collection of rubbish that would normally have been burnt. 

Borneo building project

Towards the end of the expedition, we will live in a remote island community to help develop their marine conservation projects, helping protect turtle nests and educate the people about the dangers of bomb and cyanide fishing, both prevalent aground the island.  Since losing my right foot to cancer 5 years ago, I have completed my PADI advanced diving qualification and this will allow me to help with the dive conservation projects. To go on this expedition I need to contribute to expedition funds and I am very grateful to the Douglas Bader Foundation in helping with a contribution towards my costs. 

Phil Oakley

Our BADER BRAVES Young Aviators Days Programme is now confirmed with an amazing 12 Events on offer at various locations in the UK. Thanks to the generosity of the Ulster Flying Club, we have 2 Flying Days at County Down this year. The event was so over-subscribed last year that we had to disappoint several Braves and their families.

With all these Flying Days to choose from, we do hope you can find one near enough to you to be able to attend one of these literally uplifting events. You can find out more about these Events from the bespoke Flying Days Page.

To make it easier for you to book your place, we now have an Online Booking Form which you can complete here. You can select the Flying Day you wish to attend from a scroll down menu but please be careful to choose the right date for the Ulster Flying Club Day.

The Programme follows so please  choose your event then scroll down and complete the form. If you have any problems, please contact: douglasbaderfdn@btinternet.com or telephone Keith Delderfield on: +44 (0) 7831 596015

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Bader Braves Young Aviators Day

REGISTRATION & AUTHORISATION FORM

Please select the Young Aviators Day you'd like to attend. Please note that, especially where we have 2 Flying Days at the same airfield, we will prioritise Bader Braves who have not attended before. Ulster Flying Club (1) - Sat 4th May (completed) West London Aero Club - Sun 12th May (completed) Moray Flying Club - Sat 18th May (event full) (completed) Haverfordwest Airport - Sat 8th June Goodwood Aero Club - Sun 23rd June Dunkeswell Aerodrome - Sat 29th June Scottish Aero Club - Sat 6th July Shropshire Aero Club - Sat 20th July RAF Cranwell - Sun 11th Aug Cornwall Flying Club - Sat 17th Aug Ulster Flying Club (2) - Sat 7th Sept RAF Waddington - Sat 14th Sept

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE CAN NOT ACCEPT APPLICATIONS RECEIVED AFTER 6.00pm ON THE WEDNESDAY BEFORE THE SELECTED FLYING DAY

Young Pilot's Name

Date of Birth

(On calendar first select year then, using the directional arrows, find the month and click on the date of birth. You'll end up with a format like this: --/--/---- )

Address

Postcode *

Tel No (no spaces)

Mobile No (no spaces)

Email Address *

Nature of disability

Do you have any special requirements as a result?

Please let us know if there's anything that would make attending the Event easier for you

Wheelchair user?

Yes

No

Please say when you'd like to take your flight using the check boxes below. (Leave blank if no preference):

Morning

Afternoon

We'll do our best to meet your requirements although this will depend on demand and availability.

Do you need to be accompanied for the flight?

Yes

No

If you can fly unescorted with the pilot, it means you could go up in a 2-seater and may save you a possible lengthy wait!

Will this be your first Bader Braves Young Aviators Day?

Yes

No

Names of adults (over 16) that you are bringing (Name / Date of Birth)

Names of under 16s that you are bringing (Name / Date of Birth)

PLEASE ASK YOUR PARENTS TO SIGN THIS FORM AND SEND IT BACK TO ME IMMEDIATELY TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE :-

I (Full name please) *

of (Full address including postcode) *

give my permission for *

(& all other members of my family should the opportunity arise) to take part in the Bader Braves Young Aviators Day and to be flown in a light aircraft at the event. I understand and accept that any flight is taken entirely at our own risk and fully accept that no responsibility falls in any way upon the Douglas Bader Foundation, the event organisers, participating pilots, participating Flying Clubs. I further understand that photographs of the event may be taken and accept that by signing this form I am permitting any pictures which may contain images of any of my family members to be used for advertising or promotional purposes by The Douglas Bader Foundation and participating Flying Clubs.

NB. No child will be permitted to fly unless the event organisers are in receipt of this signed form of authority.

To help with security would you provide the following information about the vehicle you will be arriving in:-

a) Make & model of vehicle

b) Colour of vehicle

c) Registration Number

Please copy the words into the box below to show you're not a spambot!

From left to right: Margaret (Maggz) Biggs, Peter and Sandra Jones of County Cycles and Wynn Jenkins with That Tandem kindly supplied by County Cycles

TEAM BADER completed the inaugural TEAM BADER CHALLENGE, TANDEM CHALLENGE WALES, a tandem ride down the vertical axis of Wales, on Monday 15th April.

The Team consisted of 4 amputees; DBF Ambassadors, Wyn Jenkins and Margaret Biggs, riding a tandem and Gemma Trotter and Colin Davies on 2-wheelers (yes – I know nothing about bikes!) and 12 supporters from the wonderful County Merlin Cycles based at County Cycles at Cross Hands near Llanelli. We are extremely grateful to Peter and Sandra Jones of County Cycles for the loan of the tandem, providing expert technical back-up and for running a very healthy collection in the shop. The route was chosen by Wyn Jenkins and finalised after a trial ride by Guto Evans accompanied half the way by Wyn himself. Guto is clearly a brave man to ride it twice in quick succession – our thanks to him.

The ride started at Holyhead, Anglesey, where TEAM BADER, having travelled from the Travel Lodge at Porthmadog, and supporters gathered in the Port Car Park to set up and get prepared for the Challenge. The Port and Car Park staff couldn’t have been more helpful and enthusiastic and we received the first donations of the ride. Thanks particularly to  Alan Williams and Craig from Stena Line. Both suggested a repeat performance next year with the promise of more involvement and Craig even offering to ride the 1st mile with the Team. Car Park attendants also expressed a wish to be kept informed of a repeat ride with the promise of help and support. With enthusiasm like that, how could Team Bader Tandem Challenge Wales NOT become an annual event…?! We are very grateful to them all, anyway, for making the start of the ride as easy and enjoyable as nerves would allow.

After a few last minute adjustments, most of TEAM BADER made a slightly delayed start from Holyhead, finally getting away shortly after 11.30. Three of the team were unfortunately delayed (one brilliant case of the Law of Sod applying…) and were to arrive at Holyhead Station and catch up with the Team later, aided by Marianne and Jeff Rhys. Marianne, who did a fantastic job of organising the overnight and lunchtime stopovers was gutted not to be riding herself, but had managed to break her wrist only 2 weeks previously on a training ride. Another good reason for making this an annual event, Marianne!

Back-up vehicles looking good.Pass them if you dare…

We watched the Team out of sight and, apart from regular text updates from Maggz, when signal (variable in Wales, we discovered) and activity allowed, were out of contact with them until Day 2 when, after a lot of deliberation as to which route Wyn would have planned out of Barmouth (it turned out to be the Cycle Path alongside the railway – one we hadn’t reckoned on at all!) we finally hunted them down on the Dolgellau to Machynlleth Road. It was heart-warming indeed to come up behind the back-up vehicle with its impressive sign. Huge thanks again to the back-up drivers, Marg Jenkins (wife of Wyn) and her 2 4-legged companions in one vehicle, and Rob, Gemma’s other half, with his mini-me co-driver, Archie, in the other. They did a fantastic job and their calm, patient presence accompanying the vehicles provided terrific reassurance and was a big safety factor. I understand that drivers can have a tendency not to give cyclists as much leeway as they should and Maggz reported later that they’d had no trouble with overtaking vehicles. (I think the only one who probably got close to mowing them down was Martin who had neglected to notice a car coming the other way as we waved, hooted and cheered our way past them through a surprisingly narrow village en route. That would have been an altogether different and rather tragic end to the Challenge!) We made brief contact with the Team again the same day in a lay-by en route to Machynlleth. This was my first lesson in how quickly cyclists can travel – how wrong I was to think there would be time to make a cup of tea before they got to us…! It was wonderful to see them all pulling in to say hello even if someone on the back of the tandem did let out a shout of surprise as the bike veered across the road into our layby. There are definitely pros and cons to riding behind on a tandem! A pro, as Wyn says, is the central heating system in front of you (very welcome, I’m sure, in what was unseasonably cold weather), a con is that you are definitely not in control of the direction and the whims of the cyclist in front can easily take you by surprise!

Maggz modelling the TEAM BADER Kit

One more meeting for a tea stop and the Pendre Garden Centre where a somewhat astonished manager did a fantastic job of making 20+ unexpected visitors very welcome and providing a seemingly endless supply of tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Very grateful thanks to him and to all who supplied en-route breaks. I understand that the Team were treated royally wherever they stopped and were met with interest, enthusiasm and, frequently, donations. I can safely say that there are a lot more people in Wales now who know about the Douglas Bader Foundation than there were before the Tandem Challenge. When the weather permitted the Team to wear the excellent TEAM BADER Strip designed by Maggz, there was no missing them! A big thank you to Maggz for her hard work in putting it all together and to Owayo for meeting her requirements so well and obligingly. The outcome was certainly worth the effort and it’s truly a kit to be proud of.

And so on to Machynlleth… The TEAM arrived, wet but full of good spirits for their overnight stay at the aptly named Wynnstay Hotel. They were joined there by friends and supporters including Roy, an old (or should that be long-standing?) friend of Wyn, who has apparently been applying various tactics to separate other friends from their money in support of a good cause! Thank you to Roy and all who have donated both in the lead up to and during the ride both directly and through JustGiving. We’ll know who more of you are in due course but your contributions are very, very welcome and we’re extremely grateful to you all. We’ll also, of course, publish the total amount raised in due course when all the monies have come in so please keep watching this space.

We left the cyclists to their welcome baths and their revelries  early nights and headed to our campsite by the river but joined them again in the morning to see them off into yet another wet day for, apparently, the most gruelling day of the Challenge. A l-o-n-g climb into Lampeter and the very welcome comfort of the Falcondale Hotel following the relatively “easy” ride into Aberystwyth. This was also the day where, not only was it raining (almost horizontally) but there were winds gusting up to 60mph. (Probably not so bad if they’re gusting behind you!) We watched them go with some trepidation before settling down to a coffee and newspapers in the comfort of the Wynnstay Hotel…

We didn’t see the Team again (though were regularly kept updated via very welcome texts from Maggz) until the finish on Monday at The Mumbles. (Thanks here to Sandra Demar, photographer, who turned up to take photographs of the finish despite having been a victim of the Swansea measles outbreak.) (Those to follow shortly so keep checking the Website…) What a truly wonderful sight to see the whole TEAM BADER heading triumphant down the cycle track towards Verdi’s Restaurant (almost – and it would have been if not for a last-minute puncture) on the dot of the predicted 5.00pm. A small crowd had gathered to welcome them home after their fantastic efforts and there were cheers and enormous pride as they crossed the makeshift finish line. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with tears in my eyes as they came in.

It was a wonderful and inspirational event and one I felt privileged to be involved with. A fantastic group of people and the most warm, supportive and enthusiastic camaraderie it would be possible to experience anywhere. There are too many individual thank yous to mention here – those will also follow – but a great, heartfelt, collective thank you to you all. The success of TEAM BADER TANDEM CHALLENGE WALES was only possible as a group effort and it truly couldn’t have been a nicer group.

From the Foundation’s point of view, you raised not only considerable funds but a greatly increased awareness of the charity and its work as well. Your team spirit and achievement was inspirational and will, I’ve no doubt be the start of a great new venture for the charity. TEAM BADER was founded with the intention of encouraging more amputees and other disabled into sport and your brilliant example can only help towards that.

Thank you TEAM BADER CYCLING from all at the DOUGLAS BADER FOUNDATION. You did us proud.

You will be able to see a Gallery photographs from a selection taken by Martin McCleave below. More photographs will be coming in soon so please keep on checking in. They’ll be worth seeing!!

(NB: Changing the Gallery viewing setting causes the screen to return to the top of the post so be prepared to scroll down again. Also, if you click on a picture to enlarge it, clicking on it again will return you to the picture list. Not very clear, I’m afraid!)

You can also see a great selection of photographs, which capture brilliantly the feel of the Event, taken by Marianne Rhys on the County Merlin Cycle Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/370168349701419/?fref=ts

By Wendy McCleave of the Douglas Bader Foundation

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We are sorry to report that the Young Aviators Day provisionally booked for Saturday 15th June at Great Oakley will not go ahead.

We apologise to any BADER BRAVES who were hoping to attend that event and for any disappointment caused but hope that you’ll be able to find another location.

On a more positive note, the Flying Day at RAF Waddington, provisionally booked for the 1st June, will take place but somewhat later in the year on Saturday 14th September. Plenty of time for you to book your place!

Please click on the aeroplane to see the revised Flying Day Programme. We look forward to flying with you somewhere this summer!

Huge congratulations and sincere thanks to Team Bader and their supporters who completed their 4-day, 200-mile Tandem Challenge Wales yesterday on the dot of the predicted 5.00pm arrival at The Mumbles. (Well, it would have been if not for a last-minute puncture!)

A fantastic achievement and a truly wonderful team.

Just back from following the Team from the comfort of a camper van but full reports and many photographs and a plethora of acknowledgements will follow shortly. Please keep checking in. It’s truly inspirational stuff and we’ve no doubt that this was the acorn that will sprout a forest of oaks.

* WELL DONE TEAM BADER from all at the DBF. We are so proud of you all. *

Margaret Biggs(l) and Wyn Jenkins (r) (Team Bader), with Peter and Sandra of County Cycles (centre).

Wyn Jenkins and Margaret Biggs in Team Bader Kit on the tandem loaned by County Cycles

DBF Ambassadors, Wyn Jenkins and Margaret Biggs, will undertake to ride the 200 miles vertical axis of Wales on a tandem between the 12th – 15th April.

The route will take Wyn and Maggz, both amputee cyclists, from Holyhead to Mumbles passing through Porthmadog, Machynlleth, Aberystwyth, Tregaron, Lampeter, Llandeilo, Annamford, Pontarddulais and Swansea en route.

We will be publishing a map of the route shortly so that you can come along to support them. Please keep checking the Website for details.

They are very kindly undertaking this challenge to raise funds for the Douglas Bader Foundation. You can contribute to their success by donating through their JustGiving Page. We are very grateful for all donations, however small, and you can be sure that all funds received on behalf of Tandem Challenge Wales will be put to very good use helping the DBF to continue its invaluable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled.

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The DBF is very grateful to County Cycles for the loan of their tandem for the practice sessions and the Challenge itself. They are also responsible for sending us some excellent photographs of Wyn and Maggz in action.

County Cycles: 53 Llandeilo Road, Cross Hands, Carmathenshire, SA14 6RD. Tel.: 01269 845656

Please find a location on the route where you can come to cheer Wyn and Maggz on their way. They will really appreciate the support. You’ll be able to spot them as they’ll be wearing the super-cool bespoke cycling kit designed by Maggz and, if you don’t blink, you won’t miss them!

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DAY 1 (Friday 12th April)

• Holyhead:     10.30am Depart

• Caernarvon: 1.30 – 2.00 Lunch

• PORTHMADOG: 5.00ish Arrive. Stay at Travel Lodge, Porthmadog

DAY 2 (Saturday 13th April)

• Porthmadog: 10.00 Depart

• Head for Machynlleth via Harlech, Barmouth, Aberdovey

• MACHYNLLETH: Arrive late afternoon. Stay at Wynnstay Hotel, Machynlleth

DAY 3 (Sunday 14th April)

• Machynlleth: 10.00 Depart Wynnstay Hotel

• Head for Lampeter via Aberystwyth, Tregaron, Llandewi Brefi (immortalised by Matt  Lucas in Little Britain)

• LAMPETER: Arrive late afternoon. Stay at Falcondale Hotel, Lampeter

DAY 4 (Monday 15th April)

• Lampeter: Depart Falcondale Hotel 10.00am

• Head for The Mumbles via Tally, Llandeilo, Ammanford, Pontarddulais, Gorseinon, Gowerton to…

• THE MUMBLES: Verdi’s Restaurant: 5.00pm

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 * Please note that, to quote Wyn who says with superb confidence: “All the times are approximate and subject to weather conditions and mechanical breakdowns.” *

THE 5 DAYS TO GO REPORT

On Friday 12 April 2013, I’ll be riding a tandem with fellow DBF Ambassador -Margaret Biggs, down the vertical axis of Wales covering the 200 miles in 4 days. 

I’m a 62 year old above knee amputee and Maggz is a below knee amputee who, thankfully, is also an experienced tandem rider as well as being an accomplished solo rider.   Maggz got me into long distance cycling 4 years ago following the loss of my leg.  I’d been happy to trundle around my village before getting to know her via the “Limb Loss Information Centre ” forum site.  In many ways, getting to know Maggz has been inspirational and certainly life changing ……BUT…..there have been times lately when ploughing through 70 mile training rides, that I have rued the day I ever responded to her post!!

Yesterday I had to cut short a planned 45 mile ride with my local cycling club – CMC, after a spoke snapped on my rear wheel. This particular training ride included a 4 mile climb of The Black Mountains. Sixteen of us set off at 10.00am from  Dryslwyn Castle in Carmarthenshire and cycled via Ammanford to Brynamman, where we stopped for refreshments before tackling this Category 1 climb.  I was about half way up and passing other riders who had started too quickly – I was feeling really good and relishing the dramatic and breath-taking 40 mph+ descent that would take us down to Llangadog.  All of a sudden, I went from feeling good (and I have to admit a tad cocky) to thinking I’d overcooked it – each pedal revolution suddenly became harder and harder – it felt as though I was cycling with my rear brake partly on – IT WAS!! I got to the top with the first 5 riders and further investigation confirmed a bad wheel buckle that was dragging on the brake blocks.  We had to make a phone call for transport to get me off the mountain as it was just too dangerous to ride the 8 miles to Llangadog.

This setback was in contrast to the fantastic club ride the previous Wednesday when we cycled from the top of The Brecon Beacons (Storey Arms) down to the coast at The Mumbles (42 miles) and then on to Llanelli before returning to Cross Hands (70 miles).  The scenery on the Beacons on that sunny but very cold morning was stunning, if a little windy. To ride in such contrasting and breathtaking scenery in the company of like-minded people was fantastic. Thank goodness I found cycling as an alternative to running which had been my passion before amputation – it’s such an inclusive activity and within the compass of most amputees given the right equipment and encouragement.

This is me arriving at The Mumbles (42 miles) for lunch during our 70 mile training ride last week

Gemma Trotter who lives near Gatwick and was on holiday in Wales, joined us on the ride.  She’s also an above knee amputee who, instead of wearing a socket to suspend her leg, uses a pin that has been implanted directly into her femur (osseo-integration). This pin connects to her leg so that she weight bears through her skeleton rather on the soft tissues of the ischial tuberosities (sit bones).  She and another above knee amputee – Colin Davies from Plymouth, will also be doing the North-South Wales challenge with us.  She completed the 42 mile ride to Swansea where she met up with her husband and little boy.  She’s been nursing an injury and was ecstatic to have come through this long ride unscathed.  It was a great morale booster to have got this long ride out of the way, especially as the last 14 miles were uphill and into the teeth of a strong and icy easterly wind – it was very tough!

I’ve done a lot of training in preparation for this tough challenge and feel very fit.  Riding a tandem is technically difficult because each rider needs to put the power through the pedals evenly.  The rear rider needs to sit squarely and should never exert too much force on the handlebars as this can affect the handling dynamics – i.e it makes steering the thing very difficult!! The tandem is obviously much heavier than a normal road bike and it takes a bit of getting used to. On the flat it can go a like a rocket but the up hills require a low gear and a great deal of determination! The turning circle is much bigger and the communication between each rider has to be spot on.  I found out very quickly during a training ride with Maggz that I shouldn’t stop pedalling when I felt like, as this had the effect of nearly breaking her leg (prosthetic and real) as she was attempting to put the power down.  After feeling her wrath and getting a few well-aimed slaps on the back, I soon learned to communicate properly!!

Maggz has been struggling with a heavy cold for the past two weeks but was well prepared before succumbing to the effects of it. She had trained consistently and rode impressively at two cycling sportives finishing well up the female rankings.  She managed a 39 mile ride last Saturday and I know that with her racing pedigree and a life-time of cycling in her legs that she’ll be absolutely fine when we line up for the start in Holyhead.  Knowing her, she’ll probably take her legs off the pedals and complain we’re going too slowly – she’s full of little tricks is Maggz!!

If anyone reading this can muster up some energy to come and give us a shout of encouragement along the way, we’d be very grateful.  We’re setting off from Holyhead at 10.30am on Friday 12 April and will be stopping for lunch at Caernarvon at about 1.30 – 2.00pm. We should be arriving at The Travel Lodge, Porthmadog around 5.00pm.

We’ll be departing Porthmadog at 10.00am on Saturday 13 April and will be heading for Machynlleth via Harlech, Barmouth and Aberdovey, hopefully arriving at The Wynnstay Hotel late afternoon. Day three will see us cycling from Machynlleth (10.00am start) to Lampeter via Aberystwyth, Tregaron and Llanddewi Brefi (of Little Britain fame) – again arriving late afternoon.

The final day’s cycling after a 10.00am start will be from The Falcondale Hotel, Lampeter, to the Mumbles via Tally, Llandeilo, Ammanford, Pontarddulais, Gorseinon and Gowerton finishing at Verdi’s Restaurant, Mumbles at 5.00pm.  All the times are approximate and subject to weather conditions and mechanical breakdowns.  Luckily, the owners of County Cycles of Cross Hands, who have loaned us the tandem will also be cycling with us and will be providing the technical back-up – big thanks to Sandra and Peter Jones for their support.

Just a bit of easy cycling in the next few days to keep the leg (singular) loose and to keep the nerves at bay.  It’s going to be a tough challenge especially as the forecast is for southerly head winds and showery conditions.

What we’d like is for anyone reading this to support our efforts by giving what they can afford to help a charity that does so much for so many.

I’ll write again next week about how the challenge went.

Wyn

***************************************************************

* If you’d like a hard copy of Wyn’s BLOG(1), please click on the link to download a pdf version which you can print and keep. *

GO WYN AND MAGGZ!

***************************************************************

TEAM BADER NORTH-SOUTH WALES TANDEM CHALLENGE

THE 5 DAYS TO GO REPORT

On Friday 12 April 2013, I’ll be riding a tandem with fellow DBF Ambassador -Margaret Biggs, down the vertical axis of Wales covering the 200 miles in 4 days. 

I’m a 62 year old above knee amputee and Maggz is a below knee amputee who, thankfully, is also an experienced tandem rider as well as being an accomplished solo rider.   Maggz got me into long distance cycling 4 years ago following the loss of my leg.  I’d been happy to trundle around my village before getting to know her via the “Limb Loss Information Centre ” forum site.  In many ways, getting to know Maggz has been inspirational and certainly life changing ……BUT…..there have been times lately when ploughing through 70 mile training rides, that I have rued the day I ever responded to her post!!

Yesterday I had to cut short a planned 45 mile ride with my local cycling club – CMC, after a spoke snapped on my rear wheel. This particular training ride included a 4 mile climb of The Black Mountains. Sixteen of us set off at 10.00am from  Dryslwyn Castle in Carmarthenshire and cycled via Ammanford to Brynamman, where we stopped for refreshments before tackling this Category 1 climb.  I was about half way up and passing other riders who had started too quickly – I was feeling really good and relishing the dramatic and breath-taking 40 mph+ descent that would take us down to Llangadog.  All of a sudden, I went from feeling good (and I have to admit a tad cocky) to thinking I’d overcooked it – each pedal revolution suddenly became harder and harder – it felt as though I was cycling with my rear brake partly on – IT WAS!! I got to the top with the first 5 riders and further investigation confirmed a bad wheel buckle that was dragging on the brake blocks.  We had to make a phone call for transport to get me off the mountain as it was just too dangerous to ride the 8 miles to Llangadog.

This setback was in contrast to the fantastic club ride the previous Wednesday when we cycled from the top of The Brecon Beacons (Storey Arms) down to the coast at The Mumbles (42 miles) and then on to Llanelli before returning to Cross Hands (70 miles).  The scenery on the Beacons on that sunny but very cold morning was stunning, if a little windy. To ride in such contrasting and breathtaking scenery in the company of like-minded people was fantastic. Thank goodness I found cycling as an alternative to running which had been my passion before amputation – it’s such an inclusive activity and within the compass of most amputees given the right equipment and encouragement.

This is me arriving at The Mumbles (42 miles) for lunch during our 70 mile training ride last week

Gemma Trotter who lives near Gatwick and was on holiday in Wales, joined us on the ride.  She’s also an above knee amputee who, instead of wearing a socket to suspend her leg, uses a pin that has been implanted directly into her femur (osseo-integration). This pin connects to her leg so that she weight bears through her skeleton rather on the soft tissues of the ischial tuberosities (sit bones).  She and another above knee amputee – Colin Davies from Plymouth, will also be doing the North-South Wales challenge with us.  She completed the 42 mile ride to Swansea where she met up with her husband and little boy.  She’s been nursing an injury and was ecstatic to have come through this long ride unscathed.  It was a great morale booster to have got this long ride out of the way, especially as the last 14 miles were uphill and into the teeth of a strong and icy easterly wind – it was very tough!

I’ve done a lot of training in preparation for this tough challenge and feel very fit.  Riding a tandem is technically difficult because each rider needs to put the power through the pedals evenly.  The rear rider needs to sit squarely and should never exert too much force on the handlebars as this can affect the handling dynamics – i.e it makes steering the thing very difficult!! The tandem is obviously much heavier than a normal road bike and it takes a bit of getting used to. On the flat it can go a like a rocket but the up hills require a low gear and a great deal of determination! The turning circle is much bigger and the communication between each rider has to be spot on.  I found out very quickly during a training ride with Maggz that I shouldn’t stop pedalling when I felt like, as this had the effect of nearly breaking her leg (prosthetic and real) as she was attempting to put the power down.  After feeling her wrath and getting a few well-aimed slaps on the back, I soon learned to communicate properly!!

Maggz has been struggling with a heavy cold for the past two weeks but was well prepared before succumbing to the effects of it. She had trained consistently and rode impressively at two cycling sportives finishing well up the female rankings.  She managed a 39 mile ride last Saturday and I know that with her racing pedigree and a life-time of cycling in her legs that she’ll be absolutely fine when we line up for the start in Holyhead.  Knowing her, she’ll probably take her legs off the pedals and complain we’re going too slowly – she’s full of little tricks is Maggz!!

If anyone reading this can muster up some energy to come and give us a shout of encouragement along the way, we’d be very grateful.  We’re setting off from Holyhead at 10.30am on Friday 12 April and will be stopping for lunch at Caernarvon at about 1.30 – 2.00pm. We should be arriving at The Travel Lodge, Porthmadog around 5.00pm.

We’ll be departing Porthmadog at 10.00am on Saturday 13 April and will be heading for Machynlleth via Harlech, Barmouth and Aberdovey, hopefully arriving at The Wynnstay Hotel late afternoon. Day three will see us cycling from Machynlleth (10.00am start) to Lampeter via Aberystwyth, Tregaron and Llanddewi Brefi (of Little Britain fame) – again arriving late afternoon.

The final day’s cycling after a 10.00am start will be from The Falcondale Hotel, Lampeter, to the Mumbles via Tally, Llandeilo, Ammanford, Pontarddulais, Gorseinon and Gowerton finishing at Verdi’s Restaurant, Mumbles at 5.00pm.  All the times are approximate and subject to weather conditions and mechanical breakdowns.  Luckily, the owners of County Cycles of Cross Hands, who have loaned us the tandem will also be cycling with us and will be providing the technical back-up – big thanks to Sandra and Peter Jones for their support.

Just a bit of easy cycling in the next few days to keep the leg (singular) loose and to keep the nerves at bay.  It’s going to be a tough challenge especially as the forecast is for southerly head winds and showery conditions.

What we’d like is for anyone reading this to support our efforts by giving what they can afford to help a charity that does so much for so many.

I’ll write again next week about how the challenge went.

Wyn

***************************************************************

Our thanks to Wyn. All at the Douglas Bader Foundation wish him and Maggz a successful, safe and, if possible, even – at times – enjoyable challenge. We are deeply grateful for all their efforts to raise funds for the charity.

Sincere thanks also to Sandra and Peter Jones of County Cycles, Cross Hands, Llanelli for the load of the tandem for the challenge but also for providing technical back-up. We greatly appreciate them giving up their time to support this challenge. We hope that, while expert, their technical abilities won’t be called upon. Well, much anyway!

********************

We very much look forward to the next installment…..Please watch this space….

Wyn Jenkins and Margaret Biggs in perfect harmony outside County Cycles

There’s less than a week to go before our intrepid Ambassadors, Margaret Biggs (also DBF LimbLine) and Wyn Jenkins, pedal off from Holyhead on their Tandem Challenge Wales.

On Friday  12th May, the dynamic duo, both lower limb amputees, will kick off from Holyhead in a bid to complete riding the 200 mile vertical axis of Wales in 4 days. They hope to arrive in the Mumbles on Monday 15th April.

They are undertaking what, given some of the notoriously steep hills in Wales, will undoubtedly be a gruelling challenge to raise funds for the Douglas Bader Foundation and we are deeply grateful to them for their efforts on the charity’s behalf.

While the dedicated JustGiving Page will stay open for a while after the challenge and donations can, of course, be made to the charity in the name the event at any time, there isn’t much time left to raise sponsorship or funds prior to their departure so please show your support by downloading sponsorship forms and Flyers and generally doing what you can to raise awareness of and support for this event. You’ll find links to useful downloadable material below.

* To support Maggz and Wyn in this worthy challenge and thereby to donate money to a very good cause, please go to their JustGiving Page. It’s much easier to press a button than to pedal 200 miles on a tandem! If you happen to be anywhere on or near their route between the 12th – 15th April then they’d love you to come along and show your support in person and cheer them on their way. *

We don’t know anticipated times yet and I’ll publish those as soon as we have them but it’d be wonderful if we could raise something of a crowd for them as they leave Holyhead on Friday morning and, even more so, as they – hopefully – pedal through the finish at the Mumbles sometime on Monday afternoon. They will be staying at the Travelodge Hotel, Porthmadog on the 11th and 12th, the aptly-named Wynnstay Hotel, Machynlleth on the 13th and the Falcondale Hotel, Lampeter on the 14th if you’d like to offer your support. You can see a map below for the full route – please do try to cheer them on their way if you’re at any of the locations en route. If you don’t blink you should see them!

Tandem Challenge Wales represents the first event for Team Bader, a DBF initiative, which we hope will attract amputees and others to various sports to be able to benefit physically and psychologically from their chosen activity. Team Bader Cycling is kicking off in style (literally as they’ll be wearing the state-of-the-art cycling gear designed by Maggz) at the weekend but we hope that people will join in and support by organising and/or joining walking, running or other events.

USEFUL LINKS

A list of useful links will follow. Please download and use them and do contact us if you’ve got any questions about this or any other event.

• Sponsorship Form b/w (opens vertically ready for printing)

• Sponsorship Form (colour)

• Flyer with map (please download and distribute)

• JustGiving Page

• For more information please go to the dedicated Team Bader Page on the Website

•  For previous stories, please follow the link or go to the News Page (left menu) and click on Team Bader

THE ROUTE

We’ll be publishing a report and photographs soon after the event so please keep checking in

* The Douglas Bader Foundation is extremely grateful to County Cycles, Llanelli, Wales, for supplying the tandem and for their important role in supporting Team Bader en route. We hope that their expert back-up services will be rarely, if ever, needed! *

The Mountain Trike – Complete Army Trike

I was delighted to receive news about this wonderfully enabling new invention which should give more freedom and scope to wheelchair users.

 If you’d like to know more about the Mountain Trike, please contact Roger Crawford, whose details are at the bottom of the article. If you try out one of these great Trikes, we’d love to know how you get on so do please get in touch and let us know. As it says in the short youtube Video (link below) we could be looking at something that will enable a new Paralympic sport!

“On yer bike!”

 ************************************************

REPORT ON THE MOUNTAIN TRIKE BY ROGER CRAWFORD

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about Mountain Trike, The All Terrain Wheelchair which is a newly designed but proven wheelchair that has been designed and built in Britain and which could be ideal for those members who may be suffering from Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), lower limb loss or even MS.

Please see the following link for a brief introduction to this award winning wheel chair www.vimeo.com/57441112

As you will see from the video, its unique lever drive system enables the rider to remain active, maintain an outdoor lifestyle and also participate in outdoor pursuits as they are able to independently propel themselves over uneven surfaces and inhospitable terrain such as gravel, sand, stones, logs and even snow.

The All Terrain Mountain Trike in Snow

Consequently travel across fields and farm yards, along cobbled streets, countryside paths, up and down hills and even along beaches is now possible.
Also with its hydraulic brakes applied, Mountain Trike is a very stable platform for those users who may enjoy fishing, shooting and archery.

Mountain Trike has received the following accolades to date:-
•    Five Star Product Award from Able Magazine
    •    Best of Show Award at Peterborough Mobility Roadshow
    •    Innovation Award at Naidex,
    •    Disability Exhibition Innovation Award at the British Healthcare Trade Association
    •    Innovation Award at DNEX mobility Roadshow in Newcastle,UK
    •    One was also used in the Torch Relay in the recent Paralympic Games in London.
In addition to this, Headley Court, The British Army’s Central Rehabilitation Unit, have recently purchased a fleet of five Mountain Trikes to assist with the rehabilitation of injured troops returning from front line service. The lever drive system not only aids mobility but very importantly, it also assists with the rebuilding of upper body strength.

Mountain Trike also featured on ITV4′s The Cycle Show please see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc58yR-RO34&feature=plcp

For more information, please contact:
Roger Crawford
Regional Account Manager
Mountain Trike
Westfield
Wybunbury Road
Nantwich
Cheshire
CW5 7NG

Tel: 07519 80937

Email: roger@mountaintrike.co.uk

Website: http://www.mountaintrike.co.uk/

Margaret Biggs and Wyn Jenkins with the owners of County Cycles and the tandem they are loaning for the challenge

The intrepid DBF Ambassadors, Wyn Jenkins and Margaret Biggs who plan to complete the 200 mile Vertical Axis of Wales on a Tandem to raise funds for the Douglas Bader Foundation have completed a successful training run. They plan to complete the challenge, which takes in some of the notoriously steep Welsh climbs, in 4 days between the 12th – 15th April.

• County Cycles are kindly (and very trustingly!) providing the Tandem.

• The route has been finalised with overnight stops organised.

All we need now is your support to enable them to reach their fund-raising target of £5,000.00. The money raised will go to the Douglas Bader Foundation to help it to continue its valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled.

HOW TO SUPPORT TEAM BADER TANDEM CHALLENGE WALES:

• You can donate through the dedicated Team Bader Tandem Challenge Wales JustGiving Page

• You can also download and print Flyers for the Event and distribute them where you think they’ll attract support. These are available as A4 and Double A5. (Click on the links – Flyers will open in new windows for printing.)

• You can also download and print Sponsorship Forms, available in colour or black & white. (Click on the links – Sponsorship Forms will open in new windows for printing. Please note that the b/w Form will be shown in portrait layout ready to print.)

• You can also support Wyn and Maggz in their brave efforts by simply turning up to cheer them on their way. The route is marked on the Flyer and, as well as the tandem whizzing by with both riders sporting the brand new, cutting edge of fashion Team Bader Kit, Wales has plenty of interest to tempt you too!

TEAM BADER, a brand new venture, has been created to encourage amputees and other disabled to enjoy the benefits of cycling and other sports. All are welcome to join and will be encouraged regardless of experience. Please contact us if you’d like to know more.

The Limbless Association (LA) Research Project is closing at the end of this month so this is your last chance to have your say. Please fill in the form as your input to this project could ultimately be of benefit to all amputees and those with congenital limb loss. It will only take a few minutes of your time.

The Limbless Association is funding a research project that is designed to identify the physical, social and care needs and experiences of established amputees and those with congenital limb loss.

ONLINE SURVEY

The initial phase of this research is an online survey that explores the physical, social and care needs of:

• people who have been living without a lower limb or limbs for at least the last five years; and
• people who were born without a limb or limbs

and how these issues impact on quality of life.

Part of the survey asks about the existing health and social service provision that has been received and the level of support that is available. The whole survey should not take more than 15-25 minutes to complete.

Who should take part?

You may be interested in completing this online survey if you:

• are over 18 years of age;
• live in your own home (whether rented, owned, or living with family/partner/friends/relatives);
• are a single or bilateral lower limb amputee (for 5 years or more); or
• were born without a lower limb or limbs.

To take part in the survey, please click HERE to be taken to the front page of the survey form. Please read the introduction page and then click on the >> at the foot of the page to commence the survey.

If you have any queries please  contact:

Linsey Hyde

Administration Officer

Telephone: 01245 216674

Legal Panel: 0800 644 0186

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“AbilityNet is a UK charity with a global reach, offering expert information and services on technology and disability.

Their vision is a world where accessible IT is available to all those with accessibility and disability needs.

The charity helps disabled adults and children to use computers and the internet to change their lives at work, at home and in education. 

AbilityNet ensures that whatever your age, health condition, disability or situation you find exactly the right way to adapt or adjust your ICT to make it easier to use.”

• CONTACT INFO:

• Free Phone: 0800 269 545
  Alternative number:  01926 312 847
  Email: enquiries@abilitynet.org.uk
• Fax: 01926 407 425
• Address: AbilityNet, c/o Microsoft Ltd, Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, RG6 1WG Reading, England
  Website: www.abilitynet.org.uk
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You will also be able to see a selection of the photographs he took there as a gallery below or as a collection in the BADER BRAVES Gallery Page. You can view the images as a slideshow or, by clicking on an image to enlarge it, see them larger in sequence. Clicking on the photo again will bring you back to the page.

We’d love to be able to show more photographs so, if you have any you’d like to share, we’d be delighted to put them up on the Website. Happy memories, vicarious enjoyment for those who weren’t able to be there and encouragement for potential Braves who need any for the next one!

[Show as slideshow]

12►

After many months in the offing, it’s great to be able to announce that the New Improved DBF Limb Loss Information Centre (LLIC) Website Forum has hit the world!

It has been a frustrating time as, what started off widely being regarded as one of the best (primarily) Amputee Forums got overtaken by other all-singing, all-dancing ones as new facilities became available, desirable and, quite rightly, expected.

So, we hope that we’ve taken all the suggestions – polite and otherwise! – into account and have incorporated as many as possible given the system’s limitations.

Unfortunately, one thing we can’t do is to increase the size either of the page or the type but, hopefully, you can do that using the zoom on your own computers. We did try!

One important and much-requested new feature will be the ability to receive an automated email response when somebody replies to your post. Just remember to tick the relevant box. There are security features to protect users so new visitors will be allocated a temporary password and, I’m afraid, the dreaded Captcha Codes will be in evidence. (Shame we need those things.) Existing members will be able to Log On using their current user names and Passwords. The Forum will be moderated by our greatly appreciated volunteer Moderator, Jason, who has been doing a great job with the clunky old system. It would be useful to have other volunteer Moderators to call on should Jason need support at any time so do let us know if you could offer back up when required. All help is very welcome.

Anyway, we hope you’ll give it a go and, while it should be easy to use, do please let us know if you experience any problems.

We’d also appreciate your feedback…

Finally – I apologise that it has taken so long and for the frustrations caused as a result and thank you for your patience.

Check it out HERE!

I was lucky enough to attend the BADER BRAVES Winter Wonderland Adventure Weekend this past weekend and can quite truthfully say that everyone who attended, whatever their age, size or disability, had the most wonderful time courtesy of the excellent Calvert Trust, Exmoor.

I couldn’t go to last year’s Winter Wonderland Weekend at one of the Calvert Trust’s other venues, in Kielder (they also have a flagship venue at Keswick), so apart from the report on the Website had very little idea of what to expect. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an enormous understatement! The facilities, both inside and out, were fantastic and all set in some of the most beautiful scenery the south west, or the country as a whole I’m sure, has to offer. The  wonderful light and airy Acland Room and its surrounding deck certainly takes full advantage of that with a breath-taking view out over the lake and surrounding countryside.

Sadly, one family couldn’t be there but all the BRAVES and their families and carers were united in their praise of the place and the weekend generally. The accommodation was very comfortable and well thought out for families staying with children with differing degrees of disability. Nothing was a problem for the staff there. The food was freshly-prepared and delicious and, coming in from the cold, exhilarated by the many activities on offer, very welcome indeed. Possibly too much so as several parents were convinced that, despite the exertions, they’d be leaving considerably heavier than when they arrived! Activities ranged from Archery to Zip-wiring with a vast range of possibilities in between and programmes were specially designed to be accessible and, more importantly, achievable by all. Residents were divided into groups and allocated an Instructor who would stay with them throughout their visit guiding them through a series of activities specially chosen for the group. The Instructors were second-to-none; caring, helpful, supportive, enthusiastic and encouraging. I joined a group instructed by Charlotte and an enthusiastic trainee, Jack. I was impressed with how quickly and deservedly both gained the trust and confidence of all. They were adept at getting us to try new challenges regardless of age, disability and nerves! They were also, however, able to recognise when “No” really did mean “No” and were sensitive to each person’s capabilities and wishes. Each group was equally enthusiastic about their Instructor’s expertise and skills, both psychological and physical.

As well as the various activities, the BRAVES and their families and carers also got to experience a Magic Act on the Saturday after supper and those who were able to stay wound up their weekend with a disco on the Sunday evening. All the BRAVES were, as usual, given a T Shirt and Goody Bag on arrival and presented with a certificate by Keith Delderfield pronouncing them fully-fledged BADER BRAVES on the Sunday afternoon after a somewhat chaotic but, we hope, ultimately successful group ‘photo! (You can judge for yourselves soon!)

Given the sense of achievement and satisfaction that I, as an arguably able-bodied 61 year-old, felt following my group’s challenges, I can only imagine that experienced by a child who spends a lot of his or her life physically restricted or wheelchair-bound. The smiling faces everywhere certainly seemed to bear this out better than any words could.

Do please keep checking the Website. We will be publishing more reports and photographs of the weekend shortly and we’d be delighted to receive either from any of you who attended so that we can share the memories and experience with those who weren’t able to be there.

I’m sure all would join me in thanking the Calvert Trust for a truly wonderful and, as one parent so rightly put it “Can-Do Weekend”.

* You can find out more about the excellent Calvert Trust, Exmoor, and see the great facilities they have to offer by checking their Website. (The link will open in a new window.) *

Apparently the ride was a great success once Wyn and Maggz got the hang of it. Maggz (behind) was well protected from the cold Welsh Mountain air while Wyn had the advantage of being the one knowing where they were going. 

I gather that the only hiccoughs were when Wyn decided to freewheel without telling Maggz. I don’t know anything about riding tandems (or other bikes come to that) but according to Wyn:  “for her it was like having a brake applied to her crank and that can be painful when she’s really going for it!!” (and probably resulted from some choice words directed at his back – though hopefully whipped away by the rushing wind!)

The Team Bader Challenge Wales proper will take place between the 12th-15th April during which time the DBF Dynamic Duo intend to complete the 200 mile journey down the vertical axis of Wales. More information can be found on the preceding News Post.

We are immensely grateful to Wyn and Maggz for this huge effort to raise funds for the Douglas Bader Foundation. You can support them and thereby the charity by going to their Team Bader Challenge Wales JustGiving Page – no donation is too small to be very gratefully received and will contibute towards the DBF’s invaluable work helping and supporting amputees and other disabled and their families.

Wyn and Maggz have had some other pictures taken by County Cyles, Wales, who supplied the tandem, and you can expect to see these on the Website very shortly, hopefully along with a report on the trial run by whichever has recovered fastest!

Team Bader Cycling has been initiated by Wyn and Maggz, both amputee cyclists, to encourage other amputees and those with physical disabilities to get “on yer bike” and discover the physical and psychological pleasures and benefits to be gained by the sport. If you’d like to join Team Bader on a bike ride or fund-raising challenge or would simply like to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact us. All will be welcome to Team Bader Cycling and be able to be involved in some capacity whatever their experience or disability.

You can also turn up to cheer them on along the route during their ride. Details of the route, and a hopeful schedule, will be published on the Website soon. Please keep checking in for updates.

So – without more ado – here are the dynamic duo in action: Clicking on the image will result in a larger picture, which will open in a separate window.

(It’s good of Wales too!!)

Calling all BADER BRAVES to a new Calvert Trust Weekend!

Following the success of our Winter Wonderland Weekend courtesy of the Calvert Trust at Kielder, we are joining forces with them again only this time at their Exmoor Centre.

The weekend Event, which promises the same fun, adventure and challenges for our Braves and their families and carers, will take place from 22nd – 25th February 2013.

For more information, please click on this link, which will take you to the News Post, where you will find contact details and be able to download an information and publicity Flyer.

Clicking on the logo above will take you to the Calvert Trust Exmoor Website where you can get an idea of what treats are in store.

 * PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT IS NOW FULL

AND ENTRIES HAVE BEEN CLOSED *

We are sorry to have to disappoint those of you who weren’t able to get places this time but we plan to hold more of these events so keep checking the Website for details.

We hope those Braves who do attend have a wonderful weekend. We look forward to seeing you there. Please come armed with cameras so that you can share your experiences on the Website with those who weren’t so lucky on this occasion. 

I wonder if any of you remember (mentioning no names, of course – no free advertising on this Website!) the ad featuring the famous chimps and the immortal line: “Can you ride tandem?”?  Well, our intrepid Ambassadors, Wyn Jenkins and Margaret (aka Maggz) Biggs are about to find out as they undertake the first challenge for Team Bader Cycling to raise funds for the Douglas Bader Foundation.

In April, the dynamic duo, both amputee cyclists, will undertake to ride Tandem down the vertical axis of Wales. Starting on Friday 12th April, they hope to complete the 200 mile challenge (together!) on Monday 15th April.

The route will take them from Holyhead to Mumbles passing through Porthmadog, Machynlleth, Aberystwyth, Tregaron, Lampeter, Llandeilo, Annamford, Pontarddulais and Swansea en route.

This is a huge challenge and we are enormously proud of Wyn and Maggz for undertaking it. Both are experienced  individual cyclists but sharing a bike will be a whole new experience for them both and probably something of a challenge in itself! Will they do battle for the front position? Of course, the one riding behind is guaranteed a great view as they’ll be able to admire the back of the special kit designed by Maggz for Team Bader!

Please support this wonderful fundraising challenge in any way you can. You can turn up to cheer them on their way (further details of the route and estimated times or arrival at points along it will be available on the Website in the near future). You can also support financially through the DBF Dedicated Team Bader Challenge Wales JustGiving Page. Please follow the link to donate. Any gift, however small, will be very gratefully received and, you can be sure, put to very good use.

You can find out more about the Challenge, see the kit and download the Press Release by clicking HERE.

As well as fund-raising, TEAM BADER was set up to encourage more amputees and other disabled to take up cycling.  They will be organising other cycling events throughout the year and will be encouraging others to join, whatever their disability and cycling experience. There will be something for everyone and fun and good company guaranteed. The benefits of exercise and fitness for amputees and other disabled, particularly regarding healing and rehabilitation, are well documented and we can’t think of many better ways of achieving it! Please contact us if you’d like to join TEAM BADER or would like to know more.

As an added bonus, you’ll get to wear TEAM BADER kit and hit the cutting edge of cycling cool! What more could you want?!

Please contact us for further information and keep checking the Website for updates.

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I’m sure you’ll join us all at the DBF in wishing Wyn and Maggz success in their challenge. It goes without saying that we are deeply grateful to them for their efforts. The DBF relies almost entirely on fund-raising to survive and it’s largely only through the efforts of people like Wyn and Maggz that we can raise the money to continue our valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled.

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Oh – and by popular demand, and with absolutely no reflection on Wyn and Maggz, here is the clip!

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They are all people with whom we are proud to be associated and we extend a warm welcome to Nathan. We know that Sir Douglas, with his love of flying, would be proud of Nathan’s achievements and delighted to welcome him on board.

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As you will read below, some of our Braves and their families and carers will be lucky enough to meet Nathan when he flies into our BADER BRAVES Young Aviators Days at White Waltham, Goodwood, Dunkeswell, RAF Cranwell and Bodmin.

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NATHAN DOIDGE –

NEW AMBASSADOR FOR THE DOUGLAS BADER FOUNDATION

Nathan ‘Reached for the Sky’ to achieve his Private Flying License at Goodwood Airfield on Monday 13^th August 2012.

Supported financially by a number of private individuals and selected for the Flying Scholarships for Disabled People, The Douglas Bader Foundation awarded a 2012 Bader Grant to Nathan to enable him to achieve his goal of gaining his Private Pilot’s Licence.

Nathan will be flying in to visit us at our 2013 Bader Braves Flying Days  at White Waltham, Goodwood, Dunkeswell, RAF Cranwell and Bodmin. 

‘’Congratulations on a great pass on your GST today.  I thought your flying was well above average! Apart from the fact that you flew really well, it was even more special for me considering you had an ASI failure after the first circuit and you flew the rest of the circuit detail, on a test, without any airspeed information!!! Simply outstanding!  It just goes to show, you can fly by attitude and power! I feel very confident in your ability to deal safely with a similar situation should one ever occur…  As you know, it subsequently transpired we had a “Bee Strike!”, the attached photo shows it was a direct hit on the pitot head!  It’s just as I said, every flight is different and you always have to be prepared for an unexpected situation! ATC said your landings were good….. well they were…. and even better considering some were without an ASI!  A good glide approach without an ASI is exceptional for anyone!’’      Steve Bradd –Examiner.

Nathan was born with cerebral palsy and is passionate about flying. At the moment he is thought to be the most profoundly disabled solo pilot in Britain. Nathan, 32, lives in Hayle, Cornwall.

“Regarding your question about whether I’m finding it more difficult than I expected, I’d have to answer ‘Yes and No ‘, considering I began hoping to get my licence within the four weeks of my scholarship and it’s now two and a half years later, the answer is a resounding yes!” Nathan responded.

“There have been many hurdles along the way I’ve found extremely difficult to overcome and everyone else has often seemed to have had more faith in me than I have, particularly since my first solo.”

 “While this is nice,” he continued, “the downside I’ve often found is this added a lot of extra pressure on me to succeed. With just about everything else I’ve done throughout my life, I’ve become more used to believing in myself and having to fight to convince everyone else, with the exception of my parents, of my ability. “

We’re grateful to VI-SA-GB for sending us their 2013 Sailing Programme, which is published here and is also available through the link below in greater detail.

If you have any queries or would like more information, please contact Colin Fowler whose details are given below.

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WINTERWONDERLAND WEEKEND at CALVERT TRUST, EXMOOR 

Friday 22nd Feb – Sunday 24th Feb

As we expected, the demand for places at our BADER BRAVES Winterwonderland Weekend was high. All the places have now been filled and entries are closed.

We hope that those BADER BRAVES attending have a wonderful weekend. We are looking forward to seeing some old friends and to welcoming several new Braves to the tribe!

As you know, we welcome feedback about our Events and it would be wonderful if you and your families and carers could go armed with your cameras and send us some photos and even reports about your experiences that we can share on the Website with those who weren’t lucky enough to get places this time.

We are very sorry to have to disappoint those of you who didn’t manage to get a place but, given the success of these events, do plan to have more and hope to see you at the next one. Please keep on checking the Website for more information.

We’ve been contacted by Kiera Roche, an above knee amputee and founder of LimbPower, who is in training to run the 2013 London Marathon in April.

You can support her or read her blog and get an idea of what’s involved in the training and preparation through the links included below.

I’m sure you’ll all join us at the DBF in wishing Kiera the best of success.

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“I have very stupidly committed myself to running, walking, hoping and most likely crawling the London Marathon in April. As a teenager I belonged to a running club called Ealing and Southall and I took part in the first ever mini-marathon. From that date I promised myself that one-day I would take part in the London Marathon. I was injured at 16 during a hurdle training session and told to give up running, which I did. In 2001 I was involved in an R.T.A. in Paris where I lost my right leg above the knee and with serious neck and shoulder injuries.

On arriving back in England I discovered that being an above knee amputee is very different from being a below knee amputee, as without a knee joint many activities are beyond you. I promised myself I would learn to run. After three months in hospital I attended Roehampton for rehab and whilst there I received a huge amount of advice and support from a charity called the Limbless Association, who I went on to work for. Whilst at the Limbless Association I met an American physio called Nils Jackson, who offered to help me learn to run, but at this point my injuries weren’t consolidated and I was still very weak (not sure that much has improved). I tried running on a Malc Knee, but it was uncomfortable and I found it so depressing that I couldn’t just run that I transferred to cycling.

In 2012 I met a symes (through ankle amputee) called Helen Chapman who is the same age as me and was training for the London Marathon. I was inspired by her enthusiasm and went along to the London Marathon Exhibition to interview Danny Crates and see Helen. The exhibition was like a trip down memory lane and reminded me of all that I loved about running and it was at that point that I decided I had to give it ago, just once or I would regret it for the rest of my life. It is here that I would like to point out that I am just an ordinary person like any of you. I’m not competitive, in the sense that I want to be the best and win and I don’t want to be a Paralympic athlete. I just want to be able to run and push the boundaries for me and for other above knee amputees. I guess what I am saying is that with the right self-belief, the right support and the right equipment I think we could all do more, but unfortunately the right equipment and support isn’t always available. We don’t see many above knee amputees running, partly because it requires a phenomenal amount of energy and it’s difficult and for me painful, but mostly because the access to the right equipment isn’t there. On the whole the NHS don’t fund running legs and it took a lot of effort to get one!

I am embarking on this challenge as a research project. I am fully aware that I have set myself a ridiculous goal, of which I am reminded every time I take to the road and wonder what I am doing to myself. I am writing a blog about the process I am going through and about the help and support I am receiving and any information I can gather on running, with the view that it will inspire other above knee amputees to re-engage with sport and perhaps running. My blog is: http://amputeerunningdiary.wordpress.com

If you think I am doing something worthwhile you can help keep me motivated by sponsoring me at: http://www.justgiving.com/Kierarochemarathon or if you have more money than sense you could buy me a 3s80 knee from OttoBock,

I am raising money for the Limbless Association who supports my charity and have supported me.”

Kiera Roche
www.limbpower.com

Doug Stewart – detail

Mike, who was one of the children of Doug’s first family and who was born in Jersey, had lost touch with his father who left the family when Mike was 11 and his sister younger, eventually to raise a second family.

Mike, who lives abroad, had recently wanted to learn more about Doug and was due to meet up with him in May this year but, sadly, it was not to be as Doug died just before Christmas.

Mike spoke to several members of Doug’s second family and various friends at the funeral and has been able to piece together a few facts and stories about his father but is very keen to find as many missing pieces of the jigsaw of his father’s life as possible. It’s clearly quite a complex jigsaw as Doug was something of a free spirit who enjoyed travel and adventure throughout most of his life.

Sadly, Mike’s mother died several years ago and wasn’t able to shed much light other than suggesting that Doug had undergone a leg amputation as a result of an accident when he was riding an Army motorbike. Mike’s sister, who is younger than him, is equally in the dark.

I suggested putting a news post up on the Website as, following either the above accident or, according to another source, shrapnel damage after being blown up by a mine, Doug was a leg amputee and would probably have worn a prosthetic leg. As I wrote to Mike, the amputee community is a close and supportive one and it’s possible that he may have met or been in contact with other amputees. It’s also possible, of course, that people – fellow amputees, consultants, or staff – may know of him or remember him from his stay in hospital, rehabilitation or Amputee User Groups, though it’s not known which local groups he may have used.

A short biog and the 2 photographs Mike was able to get hold of follow. If you have any information at all that you think may be of use to Mike in his search, then please contact him (mikestewart48@icloud.com) or leave a comment under the News Post. He will be very grateful for any nuggets of knowledge, however small.

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DOUG STEWART – 1922-2012

A man who lived life to the full!

Doug Stewart with son, Mike, pictured in Jersey where Mike was born. (1950/51 Jersey)

Douglas Alexander Stewart was born in 1922 in Devon.

It’s possible that Doug lied about his age so that he could join the army. He was in the Devon and Cornwall Light Infantry and was sent to Nigeria and North Africa. He could have been blown up by a mine during this service.

It was either as a result of damage caused by shrapnel following this incident or possibly an accident while riding an army motorbike that Doug had his leg amputated. It seems that he fought hard to save his leg and underwent about 22 operations before finally admitting defeat and having the amputation.

From his early days it seems that Doug was something of a free spirit and apparently spent time in Jamaica and the USA as well as Jersey and several different locations around the UK.

He was into flying and everything to do with aircraft. At one time, apparently, he lived in a small caravan on an airfield and did odd jobs to earn time in the air.

 Doug had two families. He left the first when Mike was 11 and his sister younger than that.

He died in London, aged 90, just before Christmas, 2012.

These can be found on the LLIC Website as follows. Clicking on the links will take you to the relevant News Posts where you will find information and contact details:

• Talent Introduction Days and Learn to Run Workshops for Amputees
• 17th International and 1st Chinese Chess Competition for the Disabled – Kuala Lumpur

After a lot of head-scratching, juggling and hard work on behalf of Keith Delderfield, we are delighted to be able to announce the BADER BRAVES Young Aviators Day Programme – almost in its entirety – for 2013.

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Two of the dates, Saturday 1st June (RAF Waddington) and Saturday 15th June (Great Oakley Airfield) have yet to be confirmed and news from Haverfordwest is to follow but the rest are scheduled so all we have to do now is to hope for better weather and less outside interference than we had last year!

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As always, all at the DBF are extremely grateful to the participating Flying Clubs and their members who give their time and, in the case of the pilots their fuel, so generously to make these days not only possible but the huge success they are.

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 We very much look forward to seeing some familiar faces and hope as always to welcome some new ones to the BADER BRAVES tribe.

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If you go to the Bader Braves Gallery Page, you’ll be able to see some photographs of previous Flying Days. Potential Braves shouldn’t need any more convincing than these! More about the Young Aviators Days themselves can be found on the dedicated page.

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3013 BADER BRAVES YOUNG AVIATORS DATES ANNOUNCED

The 2013 Bader Braves Young Aviators Days programme opens and closes with events at The Ulster Flying Club in Newtownards where demand was enormous in 2012 and so many youngsters had to be turned away. We have also been offered generous support from one or two new venues this year and are waiting to hear from our friends in West Wales as to whether they are able to fit us into their own very busy summer schedule. If all goes to plan there could be a total of thirteen Young Aviators Days around the UK giving an ever increasing opportunity for qualifying youngsters to enjoy the atmosphere and excitement of life at a flying club and on an airfield as well as, weather permitting, enjoying a flight in a light aircraft.

Please note that the Young Aviators Day at Great Oakley provisionally booked for Saturday 15th June has been cancelled. We are sorry to disappoint any Braves who had hoped to attend that event but hope that you can find an alternative location.

If you are interested in coming along to one of these events the please send an email to douglasbaderfdn@btinternet.com making it quite clear which of the venues you wish to attend.

To download a printable version of the dates as they are so far, please click on the BADER BRAVES plane below. Remember to keep checking in though for the final Programme.

We are grateful to Tivoli Lagos, one of our generous Bader Cup Sponsors, for sending us their 2013 update and information.

As you will see from the  Sponsors’ Page, Tivoli Lagos have joined forces with another sponsor, Onyria Palmares, to create 2 Golf Tournaments this year which may be of interest to Bader Cup players and supporters. These should be very enjoyable tournaments and, with Tivoli Lagos and Onyria Palmares involved, you are guaranteed comfort and quality both on and off the Golf Course!

In its 26th year, still under the auspices of John Southwick – an amazing achievement – and now widely recognised to be Europe’s largest National Mixed Golf Tournament, the Bader Cup has raised annually considerable funds for the Douglas Bader Foundation. We are extremely grateful to John and to all our loyal sponsors for making the Tournament possible.

This 26th Year of the Bader Cup coincides with the 30th Anniversary Year of the Douglas Bader Foundation. We’re hoping that this will be the biggest and best yet so please, if you haven’t already done so, download your entry forms and join us. You will find details and information enabling you to do this by clicking HERE.

The DBF relies almost entirely on donations and fund-raising to continue its valuable work and, thanks to the Golf Clubs and competitors who enter and support us, each year the Bader Cup has played a considerable part in helping us to achieve that. Many thanks to you all.

Happy golfing in 2013!

AMAZONIAN RAIN FOREST EXPEDITION – August 2012

Up the creek with one foot!

Last summer, I was a canoe/jungle leader with the British Schools Exploring Society expedition to the Peruvian Amazon Rain Forest.  This five-week scientific expedition involved 50 teenagers from various schools across the UK.  “The Object of the Society is to advance the education of young people by providing inspirational and challenging scientific expeditions to remote, wild environments and so promote the development of their confidence, teamwork, leadership and spirit of adventure and exploration.”

Everyone on expedition had to pay their own way, including leaders. The Douglas Bader Foundation supported me by contributing towards my costs. This was my first major expedition since becoming a below knee amputee, four years after loosing my foot to cancer. Before amputation, I organised and lead on various expeditions and was actively involved in outdoor education.  I was determined to continue as normal.  This was a mainstream expedition and I was part of the “able-bodied” leader team.

This expedition provided support for British and Peruvian scientist assessing the biodiversity of the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve through wildlife population surveys.  The size of Wales, this national park is one of the few pristine jungles in the world, home to some of the most endangered species on the planet.  It was a real privilege to spend five weeks living in and helping the indigenous Cocama people protect this special environment.

The heat and high humidity did not cause any problems with my stump or fitting and it did not stop me from performing as a leader.  Walking in the jungle was much easier than I thought and when I stood on a coral snake, it improved my odds of being bitten. Sleeping in a hammock was more of a challenge.  After one night sleeping with a foot inside the hammock, frequently waking-up with it sticking into various parts of my anatomy, I decided to leave it underneath the hammock, hoping it did not attract too much attention from the wildlife.

I have been involved in expeditions and outdoor adventure for many years and have not come across amputees. It would be great to see more (especially young people) getting involved in outdoor adventurous activities, as amputation should not stop adventure and discovery.

[Show as slideshow]

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Many congratulations from all at the DBF, Philip, for undertaking and completing this fascinating and challenging journey and our thanks for sharing your experiences.

We always love to receive first-hand reports of events and challenges so please send yours in so that others may be inspired or at least do a bit of vicarious travelling!

The Limbless Association (LA) is funding a Research Project that could provide information to help with assessing and securing the help and support required by amputees and those with congenital limb loss.

Please take the time to fill out the form. This should only take between 15-25 minutes and could be of ultimate benefit to all amputees and those with limb deficiency.

Please note that the link will be live for 3 months. Please act promptly and don’t miss this opportunity to make your voice heard.

If you have any queries regarding the survey, please contact Linsey Hyde from the LA. Her contact details are at the bottom of the article.

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The Limbless Association is funding a research project that is designed to identify the physical, social and care needs and experiences of established amputees and those with congenital limb loss.

Online Survey

The initial phase of this research is an online survey that explores the physical, social and care needs of:

• people who have been living without a lower limb or limbs for at least the last five years; and
• people who were born without a limb or limbs

and how these issues impact on quality of life.

Part of the survey asks about the existing health and social service provision that has been received and the level of support that is available. The whole survey should not take more than 15-25 minutes to complete.

Who should take part?

You may be interested in completing this online survey if you:

• are over 18 years of age;
• live in your own home (whether rented, owned, or living with family/partner/friends/relatives);
• are a single or bilateral lower limb amputee (for 5 years or more); or
• were born without a lower limb or limbs.

To take part in the survey, please click here to be taken to the front page of the survey form. Please read the introduction page and then click on the >> at the foot of the page to commence the survey.

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards

Linsey

Linsey Hyde

Administration Officer

Telephone: 01245 216674

Legal Panel: 0800 644 0186

Unit 16, Waterhouse Business Centre

2 Cromar Way

Chelmsford

Essex

CM1 2QE

Web: www.limbless-association.org

Hello and best wishes for a very happy and healthy New Year to all our readers and supporters.

Well – another Christmas has been and gone and here we are in 2013! This is a very auspicious year for the DOUGLAS BADER FOUNDATION as it is our 30th Anniversary Year. We are immensely proud of the fact that we are still going strong 30 years after the charity’s inception following the death of Sir Douglas. No mean feat for a small charity.

We have several exciting events in the pipeline to mark this achievement, details of which will appear on the Website in due course. 

In the meantime, please help us to commemorate this year by making it the DBF’s best year ever. Please join in our Events, create Events of your own, spread the word and support us in any way you can.

We rely almost entirely on donations to continue our valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled and your contributions, however small, are always very gratefully received.

Our Flying Day Programme (even more extensive than last year and hopefully graced with better weather!) will soon be published and we hope to see some familiar faces and also to welcoming new BADER BRAVES to the tribe! (You can check out Bader Braves news on the dedicated pages in this Website.)

BADER BRAVES also have a weekend event to look forward to at the wonderful Calvert Trust in Exmoor in February. If it’s half as successful and enjoyable as the previous weekend we held with the Calvert Trust at Kielder, it’ll be a cracker! 

There’s much more to follow shortly so keep checking in for more news and details and…

WELCOME BACK!

We are closing the DBF offices now over the Christmas period. If you need to contact us urgently, please use the contact details on the Website and we’ll do our best to respond as promptly as possible. Either way, we’ll look forward to being back in contact early in 2013 when we’ll be publishing our exciting new 30th Anniversary programme. Please keep checking in…

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All at the Douglas Bader Foundation wish our BADER BRAVES and their families a happy Christmas time and peace, health and happiness throughout the coming year.

We thank you for your support through 2012 and look forward to seeing you all and meeting some new BRAVES for more fun and adventures in 2013.

If you’d like a copy of the card, you can click HERE for a downloadable version.

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Amputee, long time supporter of the DBF and Olympic Torchbearer, Milan Novakovic, continues his inspirational year by joining DBF Chairman, David Bickers, who has recently suffered a serious knee injury and, freshly out of plaster, will be sporting a fetching knee brace, on Phil’s last mile. (More soon from them we hope!)

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 You can read more about Phil Packer’s phenomenal effort and what he hopes to achieve by it in the following report. He is a true inspiration to so many and we wish him the very best of success with his endeavours for this worthy cause. You can find out how you can support Phil in the report below.

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PRESS RELEASE

 Phil Packer MBE continues to inspire Britain’s young people as he brings his extraordinary “BRIT 2012 Challenge” journey to London

London – Having already completed more than 1920 miles out of his epic 2,012 mile “BRIT 2012 Challenge” walk, Phil Packer MBE, the founder of the British Inspiration Trust, will start his final 90 mile leg of the walk on 1 December and will visit each of the 33 London Boroughs before completing his 2012 miles on 18 December at Canary Wharf where we The Douglas Bader Foundation will join him.

Phil is doing the challenge after suffering a severe spinal cord injury in 2008 and having been told he was unlikely to walk again; walking 7 miles for Phil is the equivalent of over a marathon for a person without a spinal cord injury. He will walk approximately 2 – 3 miles in each Borough of London as part of his journey proving time and time again that “Everything is possible,” in line with the motto of his charity – the British Inspiration Trust (BRIT), as he aims to raise £15 million to build the BRIT Centre of Inspiration in West Sussex for young people facing adversity. When Phil finishes on 18 December, he will have walked the equivalent of approximately 310 Marathons in 331 days. BRIT marks Phil’s ‘new life’ dedicated to the cause of young people who face adversity. The charity operates through gifted support due to its minimal overheads and the fact the Phil draws no wage.

The BRIT Centre of Inspiration is planned as a unique facility that will aim to transform the lives of young people contemplating self-harm or facing depression and self-despair as a result of traumatic experiences. It will bring young people nominated by BRIT’s 50 current charity partners under one roof for residential courses to help reshape their lives, inspired by a number of high-profile inspirational figures, including Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE, Ade Adepitan and Sir Richard Branson, who have pledged their support and time to the Centre of Inspiration;

Phil calls on young people, charities and businesses to join him on his final days of the journey in London to show support for the BRIT cause, raise awareness and highlight the importance of helping young people facing adversity. With British Airways, BT, BDP, Land Rover, Calor, Capital Shopping Centres, Dunhill, Virgin and WPP already lined up to back Phil’s quest to build the BRIT Centre, Phil also hopes that by the end of his 2012 mile Challenge on 18 December, more businesses and even possibly individuals pledge their support to build the BRIT Centre of Inspiration through gifted contributions in kind or employee time, or pledges of either £10,000 for the capital build or £5,000 for specialist equipment to make the BRIT Centre of Inspiration a reality time commitments.

Phil’s unique vision for BRIT is to ensure the charity works in partnerships with other charities, providing synergies and, therefore, support for more young people in need. He aims to continue bringing charities and business together to create a legacy for young people that has the potential to redefine how charities work together.

Join Phil Packer as he walks through the following Boroughs:

1-Dec – Waltham Forest

2-Dec – Croydon, Sutton and Merton

3-Dec – Barnet, Enfield, Haringey

4-Dec – Lewisham and Southwark

6-Dec – Islington and Camden

7-Dec – Newham and Hackney

8-Dec – Hounslow, Ealing and Hillingdon

9-Dec – Redbridge, Havering, Barking and Dagenham

10-Dec – Bromley and Greenwich

11-Dec – Bexley

12-Dec – Westminster

13-Dec – Wandsworth and Lambeth

14-Dec – Harrow and Brent

15-Dec – Richmond and Kingston

16-Dec –  Haringey

17-Dec – Hammersmith and Fulham, Kew and Chelsea

18-Dec-12 – Tower Hamlet

The London walk that finishes in Canary Wharf on 18 December is a culmination of almost a year-long 2012 mile “BRIT 2012 Challenge”, as Phil made his way through locations chosen by young people in every county of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, including Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. On the way, he met young people facing physical and mental adversity, from community groups and charities, as well as youth from schools, colleges and universities who are joining Phil at specific host location where he walks.

This 2,012 mile journey started on the 24 January 2012 and is both extraordinary and visionary. The need for a BRIT Centre of Inspiration for charities & young people facing their darkest times is gaining support from young people, charities and communities wherever Phil walks and so is an invitation for 2012 businesses to come together and pledge their support to build this legacy for young people.

The Final Day Draw

Schools, colleges & universities have taken up on Phil’s invitation to show their support for young people facing adversity by registering for the “BRIT 2012 Challenge” via the BRIT website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel and completing 2012 miles this year as teams. One of the teams will receive a cheque for £2,012 on the final day of his walk in London on 18 December 2012 following a draw on the day; the team can decide which charity the money goes to.

As an incentive, one of the charities that joined the free BRIT map at http://www.britishinspirationtrust.org.uk  -  a signpost for young people to find support groups and charities in their local area – will receive a cheque for £2,012 on the final day of Phil’s walk as well following a draw, which they can put towards their own charity. Phil hopes every charity who joins the map will partner with BRIT.

 Walking 2,012 miles throughout 2012 is an enormous challenge for Phil.

Dr Angela Gall, the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Consultant at the London Spinal Injury Centre said:

“The energy Phil uses when walking is three to four times that of someone without a spinal cord injury. This means that walking for Phil is very effortful; he uses a lot of energy and puts additional stress on his musculoskeletal system.  Eight to 10 miles a day is a fantastic achievement and will require a great deal of effort and determination.  Phil is walking an equivalent of a marathon-distance effort a day.”

Phil Packer commented:  “This is about providing a physical legacy for our young people who face their darkest times and in a very special year including Her Majesty The Queen’s Jubilee Year and London 2012. I hope that businesses will show their support of our young people who face adversity by creating a Centre of Inspiration together. I also hope to involve young people throughout the year and encourage teams to help charities within their communities. I look forward to hearing from charities and young people throughout the country that need support or would like to show their support for the BRIT cause.”

To find out more about how you can support Phil Packer and donate towards the BRIT Centre of Inspiration, please visit: http://www.britishinspirationtrust.org.uk/HOME.  Follow BRIT on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel or contact info@britishinspirationtrust.org.uk for more information

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Media contacts:

Anastasia Ivanova / Ketchum Pleon

@: anastasia.ivanova@ketchumpleon.com  /  t:  +44 (0)20 7611 3669 / m: +44 (0)776 825 8694

NOTES TO EDITORS

The BRIT Focus

With a wealth of experience gained from listening to young people, BRIT defines ‘Young People facing Adversity’ as those aged between 16 and 25:

• With a physical or mental disability, or medical condition;
• With injuries including wounded service personnel
• Young carers & those suffering deprivation

The Government estimates one in 17, or 600,000, young people are classed as having a disability in the UK.  BRIT understands that coping with adversity can be devastating. Dealing with the loss of self-esteem, confidence and self-worth can plunge an individual into a dark place from which they do not know where to turn and this is where BRIT hopes to assist so young people can be encouraged to move on to existing programmes such as The Prince’s Trust or to try out new skills, recreational activities or sports.

BRIT is represented by The Young Person’s Visionary Steering Group, which is made up of young people from charities that support BRIT, whilst helping steer the cause forward and ensuring young people are at the heart of what the charity does. BRIT has the support of politicians, high profile mentors and 50 CEOs.

About Phil Packer MBE

Phil is the founder and Non-Paid Chief Executive of the British Inspiration Trust.

Phil Packer served in Her Majesty’s Forces for 17 years and sustained spinal cord damage in February 2008 while serving on operational duty and subsequently told it was highly unlikely he’d walk again.

In 2009, to regain self-esteem, self-worth and self-confidence, whilst battling depression, he raised over £1.3million for the wounded military personnel in the space of 9 months. He rowed the English Channel, walked the London Marathon over 14 days on crutches and hauled himself up El Capitan by completing 4,250 pull ups; all within 16 months of suffering a spinal cord injury with a prognosis that it would be highly unlikely that he would walk again.

In 2010, he climbed the Three Peaks during 72 hours for Sport Relief, before smashing his time in the London Marathon by completing the 26 miles in 26 hours for 26 charities, accompanied on each mile by a young person from each charity.  In the same year, he was honoured with the MBE by Her Majesty the Queen. He has also received the following awards: Pride of Britain Fundraiser of the Year, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Hellen Rollason Award.

Phil Packer has devoted his new life to supporting young people. His dedication and determination to bring charities and businesses together to create a legacy for young people facing adversity has the potential to redefine how charities work together.  His ask of businesses is to come together in 2012 and make history by taking one or more of 2012 Pledges (either £10k or £5k) to raise the £15million needed to build BRIT.  This ensures that the public continue to support their chosen charities and businesses can continue to support other charities as well.

His charity principles are unique and his aspiration is to build a Centre for Charities so he can invite young people who have lost their self-esteem, self-worth and self-confidence.  To support young people he founded the British Inspiration Trust (BRIT) that has operated with gifted support for just over one year.  He takes no wage, he employs only one member of staff, and BRIT operates with minimal overheads.  He does not ask the public for funding and his approach to every charity, business, inspirational figure and organisation is a personal one.

He has partnered with over 50 charities in 2011 and every one of their Chief Executives has agreed to be a BRIT Advisor and they all believe in the need for the BRIT Centre.  He has over 50 inspirational figures who have agreed to gift 24hrs to young people when the BRIT Centre is built and he champions other charities by fulfilling nearly 20 appointments in support of their causes.

The challenges Phil has undertaken for others and his determination to support charities and young people have inspired millions. The fundraising hero was selected as an honorary torchbearer for the London Olympics and carried the Olympic Flame on the 26 July 2012 – the 186^th day of his BRIT 2012 mile walk – and the day before the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

Inspirational public figures already gifting their time to BRIT

BRIT has the backing of a number of high-profile inspirational figures, including Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE, Ade Adepitan, Sir Richard Branson, Sally Gunnell OBE, Eamonn Holmes, Jamie Oliver MBE and the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards. Fifty inspirational figures have also stepped forward so far to support Phil, each of them willing to dedicate 24 hours of their time at the centre when it is built to help young people overcome their personal challenges. Inspirational figures are invited from every sector of society to step forward and gift 24 hours as BRIT Mentors to just listen, encourage and inspire young people at the centre.

“My work supporting other charities over the last four years and meeting young people facing adversity identified the importance of regaining self-belief, self-confidence and self-worth. The mental and psychological challenges of facing adversity are immense, and meeting positive role models and inspirational figures who are willing to spend time with young people is a stepping stone to overcoming adversity. My vision is for a centre that serves young people and brings charities and their best practice together, helping our youth to decide what they want to achieve in life and how to do it,” said Phil.

Keith Delderfield, the DBF Director of Operations, and well known to all Flying Day veterans, is working on the Young Aviators Days Programme for 2013 and we will be publishing it shortly.

Keith says that the BADER BRAVES are in for a treat with the 2013 Programme with not only more Flying Days but more venues as well. This means that we can cover an even broader area of the British Isles and offer more BRAVES the opportunity to take to the skies in what, for new BRAVES, is often their first experience of flight in a light aircraft.

Jessica Soames waits for her flight at White Waltham

These Young Aviators Days provide a literally uplifting experience for the BRAVES and their families as, where possible, our wonderful volunteer pilots do their best to take up willing siblings and, sometimes even parents and carers too! Many of our BRAVES spend their lives in wheelchairs or with limited mobility so, to be up in a light aircraft looking down on the world is an exhilarating and often brand new experience for them. The smiles on their faces as they come off the ‘plane frequently already asking for another go speak volumes.

When they’re not flying (sometimes, in the case of local BRAVES, even enjoying the novelty of seeing their home from above), BRAVES and their families and carers enjoy lunch – usually in the form of a picnic provided by the specialist DBF Picnic Department! – and whatever other entertainment may be on offer.

We love to receive feedback and photographs from our BRAVES and their families and you can read a wonderful report by Jessica Soames on her experience of attending the White Waltham Young Aviators Day in 2010 by clicking on her photo on the left. The report will open in a new window.

The Young Aviators Days are fully funded by the Douglas Bader Foundation and facilities and flights provided through the generosity of the Airfields or Flying Clubs and their pilots. We are extremely grateful to them all for their support.

Keep checking into the Website for more announcements and, in the meantime, here are a few photographs of BRAVES enjoying a previous Flying Day at Kinloss to whet your appetites! More images of other venues can be found in the Bader Braves Gallery. If you’d like more information about Bader Braves and the Young Aviators Days, please click on the BADER BRAVES aeroplane at the bottom of the page to zoom to the Bader Braves Flying Day Page.

[Show as slideshow]

We are delighted to announce a brand new Event for BADER BRAVES. Following the success of our Winter Wonderland Weekend in Kielder, we’ve joined forces with the excellent Calvert Trust again but this time at their state-of-the-art Centre in Exmoor.

CALVERT TRUST EXMOOR is located in an area of outstanding natural beauty on the edge of Exmoor National Park, next to Wistlandpound Reservoir and a short distance from the North Devon Coast.

The award-winning centre is fully accessible with comfortable, comprehensively equipped en suite rooms and apartments. All activities are on site and specifically designed and equipped to enable people with physical, sensory and learning disabilities of all ages and levels of ability to experience exciting, challenging and enjoyable outdoor activity adventures. There will be a wealth of activities to try as you’ll see from the poster and family and carers can join in too!

The instructors are fully qualified and highly experienced and are specially trained to work with disabled individuals.

All this is excellent news but what’s even better is that this Event is scheduled for FEBRUARY 22nd – 25th next year so you don’t even have long to wait! What better to look forward to after the cold, winter months…?

The Event will be fully funded by the Douglas Bader Foundation with a BRAVE and up to 3 family members or carer going free.

The only bad news is that places are strictly limited and, especially following the success of our previous Calvert Trust weekend are sure to get snapped up quickly, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment.

We look forward to seeing some familiar faces and, hopefully, some new ones too. Please tell your friends and see if you can get some new BADER BRAVES to join the tribe!

By clicking on the BADER BRAVES Logo at the top of the page you can download a Flyer containing lots of information and the contact details for the Event. This can also be printed and displayed where you think it might inspire more BRAVES to come along to what promises to be a cracking weekend! 

To find out more and/or register, please contact Keith Delderfield:

Email: douglasbaderfdn@btinternet.com adding EXMOOR in the Subject Box

Tel.: 01442 826662

Snail Mail: The Douglas Bader Foundation, 45 Dundale Road, Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 5BU

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* Clicking on the logo above will take you to the Calvert Trust Exmoor Website where you can get an idea of the treats in store for you! *

After another successful year under the skilled organisation and management of John Southwick, The BADER CUP Grand Final has been played out in Portugal. The Finalists arrived on the 4th November and left on the 8th and played some exciting golf in between. We have just received the following report and photographs. 

Many congratulations to the winners in what was a closely fought contest. We hope that all enjoyed the competition and the wonderful facilities on offer and will be back to compete again next year.

The full results can be seen by clicking on the link at the bottom of the report.

A WELSH VICTORY AT THE BADER CUP FINAL

The twelve regional final winners plus the 2011 Bader Cup holders were flown by Monarch Airlines to the Algarve in Portugal on Sunday the 4^th of November in readiness to compete for the 2012 Bader Cup.

Accommodation was arranged by the Tivoli Lagos Hotel who also organised the transfers to the Onyria Palmares Golf Club where the final was to be played.

After spending a free day to explore the town of Lagos and the Marina all the competitors had the pleasure of playing a practice round in bright sunshine on Onyria Palmares’s  Alvor and Lagos courses, and many of the finalists were surprised to see the difference between the gents white medal tees and the ladies tees where in some most cases there was a difference of at least 70 yards plus!

On Wednesday morning the day of the final the weather had changed the sun had disappeared and replaced with an overcast cloudy days after overnight heavy rain, but ideal conditions for playing golf.

The conclusion of the final was tight with Julia Barham 23 handicap and her husband Alan handicap 13 (playing for Whitchurch – Cardiff – Golf Club) winning on a count back from Julie Armitage handicap 21 and her partner Neil Raine handicap 7 (Boldon/Darlington Golf Club). Both scored 43 points with Julia & Alan having a better back nine of 23 points against Julie & Neil Raine’s 21 points.

The 2012 winners, Julia and Alan Barham (Whitchurch – Cardiff – Golf Club) with the BADER CUP

The format of the competition was Greensome Stableford with half combined handicaps and coming into third place were Milly Eaton a 7 handicap lady and Chris Payne a 2 handicap gentleman who scored 38 points.

At the Prize Presentation on Wednesday evening Antonio Pinto Coelho of the Onyria Palmares Golf Club and Joao Araujo of the Tivoli Lagos Hotel welcomed the players and announced that the final was to take place again next year during the 3^rd to the 7^th of November 2013. John Southwick the Tournament Director announced the results and the Bader Cup was presented to the Julia and Alan Barham of Whitchurch (Cardiff) Golf Club by Antonio Pinto Coelho along with his colleague Debora Andrade and Joao Araujo.

Keith Delderfield of the Douglas Bader Foundation thanked the sponsors including Monarch Airline plus all the finalists and explained what the Foundation hoped to achieve in the future and what activities that they have carried out this year. Keith then presented everyone with a DVD of the “This is Your Life of Sir Douglas Bader”, which included his last round of golf at Turnberry Golf Club. 

The BADER CUP Sponsors and Winners. From left to right: Joao Araujo (Tivoli Lagos Hotel), Debora Andrade (Onyria Palmares Golf Club), Julia and Alan Barham (Winners – Whitchurch – Cardiff – Golf Club) and Antonio Pinto Coelho (Onyria Palmares Golf Club)

Please click HERE to see the full results of the BADER CUP 2012, which will open in a separate, downloadable page.

More information can be found on the dedicated BADER CUP Page on the Website.

You can go to the BADER CUP Round-up & Results for information relating to the 2012 Tournament

Clicking on the Bader Cup Logo at the top of the Report will take you to the Bader Cup Website. 

The DOUGLAS BADER FOUNDATION is deeply grateful to our loyal and generous sponsors, Monarch Airlines, The Tivoli Lagos Hotel and Onyria Palmares Golf Club. Very grateful thanks also to the Tournament Founder and tireless Organiser, John Southwick and his partner, Pat. Last, but not least, we are indebted to all the Golf Clubs and players who took part at all stages of the competition. Every year since it was founded by John 25 years ago, the BADER CUP has raised a considerable amount of money for the Douglas Bader Foundation helping to enable it to carry on its important work on behalf of amputees and other disabled. Without the support of you all, the Bader Cup and the invaluable funds it raises simply wouldn’t be possible.

Bader Bus Company

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY TO THE DOUGLAS BADER FOUNDATION!

(Sadly, due to computer problems, published a day late!)

Sir Douglas died in September 1982 and, following literally sackfulls of letters from amputees and other disabled he’d visited and inspired over the years, begging his family not to let his inspiration die with him, the Douglas Bader Foundation was launched on 1st November 1982.

The charity’s initial remit was to help amputees but, over the years, we have broadened that to be able to include other disabled. We felt that this was particularly important as the BADER BRAVES initiative, celebrating Sir Douglas Bader’s honourary Chieftainship of the Kanai Canadian Indian Tribe, was created specifically to help and encourage disabled children and acknowledge their bravery in trying to lead normal lives. We didn’t want to restrict this help only to children with amputations and limb deficiency.

Now, 30 years on, the Douglas Bader Foundation is still going and with plenty of fuel in the tank yet, we hope, in the form of some exciting events and initiatives soon to be announced! We feel it is something of an achievement that a small charity has survived so long and continues to help and inspire amputees and other disabled in Sir Douglas’s own indomitable spirit. We feel that he would be proud of what the charity has achieved.

When Douglas went missing, shot down, and his fellow Battle of Britain pilots learned he was captured, they painted on the side of their spitfires on their next mission

”BADER BUS COMPANY – STILL RUNNING ”!

So, with that in mind, here is our 30th anniversary logo:

* The print at the top of the page is called “Bader Bus Company” and is available from ArtToFly. Follow the link to the Website for more information. You can also find a link on the right side of the Home Page

Proceeds from sales of the print go to the Douglas Bader Foundation and we are very grateful to ArtToFly for their generosity *

Nathan Doidge

32 year old Nathan Doidge, born with cerebral palsy, is described as  the ‘most profoundly disabled Pilot in the World’.

Nathan recently gained his Private Pilots’ Licence, funded and supported by the DBF Grant Scheme and trained by Aerobility at Blackbushe, and has flown over 14 hours solo. Chris Evans met Nathan and  was so taken with him that he rocked  up with a TV crew on Tuesday and they shot a piece with Nathan flying Chris and an interview for Friday’s One Show.

Nathan says on the Douglas Bader Foundation Facebook Page: ”If interested, please Like and share this page. I’ll be eternally grateful for DBF’s unwavering and continued support in getting me to where I am today. Thanks everyone” Nathan

You can click HERE to see a very cool Chris Evans being expertly piloted by an equally cool Nathan Doidge! Please make sure you have your sound turned on. (These links can be short-lived so please let me know if you’re unable to open it and I’ll remove it it prevent further frustration for others!)

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The photo of Nathan is courtesy of the Aerobility Blogspot and clicking on it will take you to the page

Learn to Run Workshops are free running clinics where leg amputees can learn about running along with relevant information, and Talent Intro, is where those of  you who can already run might be spotted as  Paralympians of the future…

As Kiera says: “Not all amputees can be Paralympians, but all amputees would love to be able to run, even if it’s just to play with the grandchildren, to overcome the fear of needing to move quickly in an emergency or to participate in sport. Our plan is to help any amputee or individual with limb difference who would like to run.”

Please see below for contact and Website details and don’t forget to put the dates in your diary and to let other people know about these events.

LimbPower working with UK Athletics to spot Amputee Running Talent for Rio 2016

LimbPower have teamed up with UK Athletics and England Athletics to help them to find talented track athletes of the future, with an eye to continuing to build on the Paralympic success forged in London.

As a part of the Talent Intro days that UK Athletics are running across the country, LimbPower are offering ‘Learn to Run’ clinics for amputees who have been inspired by the like of Johnnie Peacock and want to give it a go for themselves.

The free clinics will offer practical and theory workshops for coaches and leg amputees including information on how to start running, prosthetics, stump care, funding and coaching. The clinics are open to all amputees aged 11+, whether they are completely new to running, or are already regular runners but are looking to experience the world of competitive athletics.

The “Learn to Run’ clinics will be held at four of the Talent Intro days, the first being in Sheffield on 28th October, followed by Manchester on 13th January, Loughborough on 10th February and Chelmsford on 9th March.

So if you think you’ve got what it takes to make it all the way to Rio in 2016, or if you’d just like to learn a little more about running techniques and see how it feels for yourself then contact Kiera@limbpower.com for further details of how to register.

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For those (few!) of you who may not have heard of LimbPower:

The British Ambulant Disabled Sports and Arts Foundation was founded in 2009 with the aim of offering relief to the physically disabled by aiding rehabilitation and improving quality of life through the medium of sports and arts.

LimbPower also run The Amputee Games, launched in 2008 and now a much anticipated annual event introducing primary amputees to a wide range of sports, helping many of them with their rehabilitation and leading to a long standing interest in sport, and for some even Paralympic-level success. The 2013 Amputee Games will be held on 18th/19th May at Stoke Mandeville Stadium.

For more details visit www.limbpower.com

Clicking on the images above will enable you to download printable Flyers of the Events, which you can use to raise awareness of these great opportunities.

With the generous assistance of our sponsors, NASS’ fourteenth Annual Steel Industry Dinner took place at the National Motorcycle Museum, Solihull, on 11th October. 

More than 340 guests enjoyed the showcase evening and were addressed by NASS President, Ian Harding. Principal Speaker, Lord Digby Jones Kt. was warmly received and his speech touched a chord with Members and guests who showed their appreciation with a standing ovation. Guest speaker, David Gunson, then delighted the audience with anecdotes about his career as an Air Traffic Controller.

The President’s Charity Collection and an auction of lots donated by:

•  Lord Digby Jones Kt.
• Brown McFarlane Ltd.
• QBE Trade Credit
• Marriott Breadsall Priory Hotel
• Marriott St Pierre Hotel

raised a phenomenal £12,861.50 for the Douglas Bader Foundation, an organisation celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Additionally, the President’s own company, Brown & Tawse Steelstock Ltd., also made a donation of £5,000 to the Charity from its B&T125 Fund, thereby bringing the total collection to a staggering £17,861.50.

David Bickers, DBF’s Chief Executive Officer, was on hand to receive the funds collected and was truly amazed at the amount amassed. NASS’ thanks are extended to everyone who participated and contributed on the evening.

David Bickers (centre) receiving the cheque from Brown & Tawse Steelstock Ltd.

David Bickers speaking at the NASS Dinner

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 Dear All – This was a great weekend and well attended. Approx 60 children over the two days. Mentors from different sports were present to instruct the children. Sports included: athletics (running, long jump, discus, javelin), wheelchair basketball, table tennis, rifle shooting, tennis (wheelchair and regular), rowing, football, volleyball, badminton, cycling (our Ambassador Wyn Jenkins was in evidence here!) and power lifting.

This was an amazing weekend and many congratulations to LimbPower who run the event. I was able to introduce our Bader Braves initiatives to the attendees and their parents. It’s a shame how few of them are aware of the opportunities that are available to them so I hope that we’ll soon have some new Braves joining the tribe!

I also met with Cycling Projects www.cycling.org.uk who give people with disabilities the opportunity to cycle through the use of adapted cycles which went down very well especially with the younger 6-12 age group.

Here are a few photographs, which I hope will give an idea of the enjoyment and positivity generated by the Games. Who knows, you could be looking at some Paralympic stars of the future!

You can use the link to visit the LimbPower Website to find out more about what they do.

LimbPower held the inaugural Junior Amputee Games on 15th/16th September at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, and the lucky young participants were cheered on by their heroes Stef Reid and Gemma Collis fresh from their Paralympic success.

Over the two days, 54 children aged between 6 and 18 years old were able to try a variety of sports including sitting volleyball, cycling, athletics, football and swimming. “Participation in the Junior Games is so vital in the development of athletes. Of course, the athletes will learn new skills and competition tactics, but the most important thing they will learn is that sport is fun,” said Stef Reid. “Sport taught me to be proud of my body again, and helped me to accept and deal with my accident. It encouraged me to accept new challenges, and reminded me that I really can do anything!”

Among the participants were 8-year-old Ellie May Challis, a quadruple amputee well known to the world’s internet users as the lovely little girl photographed on the running track with Oscar Pistorius which has circulated widely on social media channels. “What an amazing and inspirational day, Ellie loved every minute,” said Paul Challis, Ellie May’s father.

Ellie May Challis

Amongst the older children there were some who shone through in particular, with 15-year-old Nicky Maxwell showing real talent on the track. The Junior Games gave kids like Nicky, a congenital right BK amputee the opportunity to demonstrate his abilities to a wider audience, with perhaps an eye on a future as a Paralympian himself. Nicky’s mother Lucy said; “My son and I had a very special day at the LimbPower Junior Games. It was great for Nicky to able to try out so many different sports in an environment where perhaps for the first time he felt entirely normal.”

LimbPower has run the very popular Amputee Games for the past five years, with the 6th Games scheduled for 18th/19th May 2013, but this was the first time that they had offered an event specifically for children. “We knew that there were kids out there who wanted to try sports themselves, but we were overwhelmed by the response we had from them. It was incredible and hugely inspirational to see them throw themselves into sport and really have fun,” said Kiera Roche, LimbPower founder and organizer of the event. “ To have sporting heroes like Stef and Gemma fresh from the Paralympics there to offer encouragement and advice was the icing on the cake.”

Following the success of the event, it is sure to become a regular fixture and both LimbPower and the children are looking forward to more sporting fun.

ABOUT LIMBPOWER

LimbPower – The British Ambulant Disabled Sports and Arts Foundation was founded in 2009 with the aim of offering relief to the physically disabled by aiding rehabilitation and improving quality of life through the medium of sports and arts.

The Amputee Games were launched in 2008 and have become a much anticipated annual event introducing primary amputees to a wide range of sports, helping many of them with their rehabilitation and leading to a long standing interest in sport, and for some even Paralympic-level success. The 2013 Games will be held at Stoke Mandeville Stadium on 18th/19th May. Registrations will open next month, with 100 places available. For full details, check the website www.limbpower.com.

Holidays can be anything but for the disabled if the right facilities aren’t there for them so we’re very grateful to Amanda Crosby, Director of Wish a Holiday, for bringing this new venture to our attention. 

To quote from their Website:

“Wish a Holiday is designed to support disabled people to access facilities within the community.

Each establishment is provided with a mobility score which enables you to visit the most appropriate venues at ease.

Holidays should be a pleasure and hopefully with the aid of  ”Wish a Holiday” this should be achieved. All you have to do is check which mobility level suits your needs.  Then either click on the google map or scroll down the page and see what takes your fancy.”

* We’ll be adding this to our Useful Website Links Page so it’ll be there for future reference but it looks well worth checking out. *

A considerable amount of the fabrication contract for this new equipment is being carried out by the specialist company, Isleburn Ltd. at their plant on the Cromarty Firth at Invergordon. At this mammoth plant (everything seems surprisingly “BIG” in the oil industry!!) safety is an absolute priority and as part of a safety incentive a financial provision is made which is reduced each time there is a safety issue during the manufacturing process with any residual amount being made available for distribution amongst local charities as selected by the total workforce.

Keith Delderfield of the Douglas Bader Foundation receiving the cheque from representative of Marine Well Containment, Exxon Mobile’s Dale Reid.
Photo: © Derek Gordon | dgordonphotography

As can be seen in the picture, the Foundation have been fortunate in receiving a fantastic donation of £5000 from this fund to go towards the development of the Bader Braves programme in the region. Moreover, the board of the manufacturing company, Isleburn Ltd, themselves chose to further support the project by adding a further £1500 bringing the total to a magnificent £6500!!

As is also evident from the photograph the presentation was made in the open air at the start of the recent gales in Scotland causing not only recipient Keith Delderfield of the DBF to have a very “bad hair day” but representative of Marine Well Containment, Exxon Mobile’s Dale Reid, to lose his completely!!!

We are indebted to each of the companies who are part of the Marine Well Containment consortium, Isleburn Ltd and the whole workforce at Invergordon for selecting our charity and their very generous support of our work.

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Our thanks also to Derek Gordon for supplying the photograph:

Derek Gordon | Photographer

 Tel: +44 (0) 7778 044 112

Email:  info@dgordonphotography.co.uk

Web: www.dgordonphotography.co.uk

Thank you all for joining us in 2012, the DOUGLAS BADER FOUNDATION hopes to see you all for more fun and flying next year. Keep checking the pages for the 2013 Bader Braves Flying Days Programme, which we hope will be the biggest and best yet!

Douglas Bader with Sir Hugh Dowding

Apparently Channel 5 are doing a series of programmes on heroes and Sir Douglas will be kicking it off!

It should be well worth watching and, as always, we’d love to receive your comments if you do.

AN EXTRAORDINARY photograph has been uncovered of RAF hero Douglas Bader on Bournemouth beach, the year before he lost his legs.

Aileen Grace Wise and friends with Douglas Bader on Bournemouth Beach

The photo, taken in the summer of 1930, shows Aileen Grace Wise being held aloft by Bader on the sands.

Aileen was just 17 at the time and the photograph was found by her daughter Diana Ruffell amongst her late mother’s papers.

She said: “I feel that a large part of the significance of the photograph lies in the fact that his legs are still visible.”

At the time the photograph was taken, Bader was 20 and had only just been commissioned into the RAF.

In December 1931, he had both legs amputated after crashing while attempting low-level aerobatics.

He was then incredibly re-commissioned in 1939 and went on to become one of the most revered pilots of the Second World War.

In 1941, he bailed out of his Spitfire over German-occupied France.

He made a number of attempts to escape German captivity and was sent to the notorious Colditz Castle prison camp, where he remained until it was liberated in 1945.

A 1956 film, Reach for the Sky, told the story of his flying career.

Aileen went to Singapore in the early 1930s, where she met and married Diana’s father Forbes Wallace, a commissioner in the Federated Malay States Police Force. When the Japanese invaded Malaya in 1941, Aileen and her daughter escaped via Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and were later evacuated to South Africa. Diana’s father fought down the Malayan Peninsula before the Allies capitulated and he spent the rest of the war in Changi POW Camp.

We have just heard from John Southwick, the organiser, that there will be a change in the line-up of Regional Finalists going to Portugal on the 4th November to play for the prestigious BADER CUP, now recognised as Europe’s largest national mixed golf tournament.

Sadly, the two winners from the Pitreavie Golf Club (Scotland) Regional Final, Nina Morrison and Graham Howarth representing Pumpherston Golf Club, have had to withdraw from the final. Therefore the runners-up, Linda Lindsay (handicap 14) & Derek Lindsay (handicap 13) representing Marriott Dalmahoy Golf Club will now go forward to contest the Cup in Portugal.

Linda & Derek scored 40 points at the regional final wining on a count back from Sally Park & Craig Geekie of Deer Park Golf Club, who were placed third.

Please click HERE to see the News Post of the Pitreavie Regional Final where you will find a link to the Results Page with downloadable results in full.

Our commiserations to Nina Morrison and Graham Howarth, we hope that they’ll be able to defend their Regional Final win next year but congratulations and best of luck to Linda and Derek Lindsay. Will they be able to convert this unexpected opportunity into a victory in Portugal…? Results will be published after the event – keep checking in to find out!

The Douglas Bader Foundation BADER BRAVES had a day to remember at Sleap Aerodrome on Saturday 8th September. A report by Keith Delderfield follows but, as these Young Aviators Days are very much your days, BRAVES, we’d love to receive any reports, stories and memories you have of the day. We’re also always delighted to receive any photographs you, your families or carers may have taken on the day and that you’d be happy to share.

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Report by Keith Delderfield:

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The BADER BRAVES had a great day to mark the first Young Aviators Day in Northern Ireland on Saturday, September 1st. A report by Keith Delderfield follows but, as always, we’d love to receive your own reports and photographs if you’re willing to share them. These Flying Days are very much your days, BRAVES, and we love to receive your feedback.

Please contact Keith at douglasbaderfdn@btinternet.com

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Report by Keith Delderfield:

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The BADER BRAVES had a wonderful day at Pembrey Airport on Saturday July 28th. Here is a report on the day by Keith Delderfield. We’d very much like to hear your own reports or stories and, as always, to receive any photographs you or your families or carers may have taken on the day to add to our Galleries.

These Young Aviators Days are very much your days, BRAVES, so we love to have your input.

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Report by Keith Delderfield:

Pembrey provides great venue for first Bader Braves visit to South Wales

28 Bader Braves, accompanied by their families were guests at Pembrey Airport in Carmarthenshire at the end of July, our first such event in South Wales. The facilities offered along with the various attractions and super picnic lunch provided the perfect setting. The enthusiasm and generosity of the pilots, all of whom had flown into Pembrey from as far away as Bodmin in Cornwall, Haverfordwest or Cardiff ensured that everyone had a truly memorable day and some wonderful flying conditions and excellent visibility over Carmarthen Bay and the lovely surrounding countryside were the icing on the cake.

Unfortunately as yet we have no photographs from this event which is a great shame as it is a great location; so if any of our Braves from Pembrey are reading this and you took some photographs that you are willing to share with us all, please send them to me at douglasbaderfdn@btinternet.com

Plans are in the pipeline for a return visit to South Wales in 2013.

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The original “Blade Runner” has been such a fantastic ambassador for the Paralympic movement and a wonderful and inspirational role model for disabled athletes generally. His outburst following his defeat in the 200m was badly timed the rights or wrongs of his complaint notwithstanding but he admitted his mistake and was gracious in defeat to Jonnie Peacock who, like so many others, has always hailed Oscar Pistorius as a sporting hero.

His battle to compete on the Olympics has been long and, I’m sure, emotionally draining but as with so much in his life, he persevered and he got there. He may not have won despite worrying a few of the able-bodied athletes, but the victory was in competing at all – a fantastic achievement and, again, an inspiration for so many others. He has opened doors to a new outlook.

It seemed only right and fitting that this Paralympic superstar, the Uber-cool Mr. Pistorius (voted the sexiest man in South Africa, I gather!) should finish the 400m in such convincing style and that his victory lap should be the last image of the London 2012 Athletics.

Pistorius Victorious - a legend

South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius provided the grand finale to a glorious 10 days of competition at the 2012 London Paralympic Games Saturday with a world record winning time in his signature event, the men’s 400 meter T44 final.

Oscar Pistorius winning the men's 400m T44 Final in style

It’s been a dream Games for Pistorius, the unofficial ambassador for Paralympians around the world. Despite missing a medal in the 100 meters and having a bit of a fit after taking silver in the 200 meters, Pistorius won two golds in the 4X100 meter T42/46  relay and in tonight’s final event at Olympic Stadium.

Oscar Pistorius's lap of honour following his decisive win in the Men's 400m T44 Final

Pistorius finished in 46.68 seconds, three seconds ahead of silver medalist Blake Leeper from the United States. After the race, Pistorius enjoyed his victory but admitted he was nervous before the race, and tired.

“It was my 11th time I was able to come out on the track and I just wanted to end and give the crowd something they would appreciate and take home with them.

“I’m so proud,” he said in a broadcast interview. “This summer has been a dream come true. I couldn’t hope for anything better. It’s been the most amazing Paralympic Games and to run two world records and get three medals is such a blessing for me.”

All eyes were on the man nicknamed “Blade Runner” for his carbon-fiber prostethics. The capacity crowd of 80,000 rose to its collective feet as Pistorius hit the turn with the victory all but assured. It was the moment he and many of the Games’ fans had waited for.

* Please click HERE to see the article in full. *

The thrilling achievements of the Paralympians have caused us to see them as role models, not victims. They have changed our lives.

I was on my feet in the Olympic stadium, yelling at the top of my voice, when I thought of her. Sharon, a friend from a long time ago. She lived a mile or so from where this great theatre of miracles now stands.

We grew up together in these parts, back when Stratford was a landscape of scrapyards, dodgy lock-ups and falling-down factories. The sort of place where The Sweeney would corner a gang of villains. Not a wasteland, despite what the politicians say, but far from a paradise. Sharon lived in a council house by the railway yards with her mum, who never let her go anywhere. Sharon had cerebral palsy.

She could walk fast enough, and boy could she talk, but at the age of 20 she had never even been to the West End. It’s only 20 minutes away on the Tube, but her mum would not take her and she certainly would not let her go on her own. The world was deemed too hostile for someone like her.

Not surprisingly, Sharon didn’t have the confidence to challenge this. Not until she fell in with a group of us and started to push the boundaries. That meant coming along one night to the Lee Valley Ice Rink.

It’s still there, almost within the boundaries of the Olympic Park. Back then it was new, and best known for a rowdy Saturday night disco on ice. We went as a group, and were almost in, but Sharon was refused.

“No,” said the bouncer, talking to us and not to her. “She can’t skate.” Sharon was outraged, of course. “I can do it!” she shouted, but he would not yield. So we decided that half of us would skate and half would watch from the side. “No,” said the bouncer again. “I’m not letting her in. She’ll put everyone else off.”

Now there were tears, of frustration and righteous anger. I thought of them in that moment of high emotion, shouting along with my children in the stadium, as I felt my eyes well up at yet another great performance in these extraordinary Games. This time it was a 400m race in the T38 class, and the winner had cerebral palsy.

I wonder if Sharon was there. What would she make of athletes with her condition winning to such acclaim, so close to the scene of her humiliation? Well, one of her humiliations. She was used to being shouted at in the street, even spat on. She was feisty and funny but few people ever listened to what she shouted after them.

We lost touch when I went abroad, and I have been unable to find her again. I would have loved her to be there. For one thing, she might have been able to make more sense of the classification system. It may be the only way of ensuring fair play but it is fiendishly difficult to understand. You end up playing a sort of disability Top Trumps, trying to work out why someone with two apparently good legs is racing against someone with one leg. “How is that fair?”

It’s all part of the learning process we have been through as a nation over these past weeks.

The Olympics reminded us that the British are funny, that we can laugh at ourselves and that there are heroes among us – role models in a nation sick and tired of glamour models and reality shows.

The Games also showed us how much we are changing. Plenty was made of Mo Farah becoming a British hero, having arrived here as a refugee from Mogadishu; but perhaps even more significantly, nothing was made at all of Jessica Ennis being the daughter of a man from Jamaica. That is how it should be – but Sharon would know how significant that was. She was of mixed race, and she grew up with me on the streets of the East End when skinheads marched here with NF tattooed on their hands.

London 2012 was a celebration of new Britishness. We didn’t want the Games to stop. Let’s be honest, that’s why so many of us bought tickets for the Paralympics: to keep the good times rolling, to see the venues and take our kids, so they could say they were there.

Maybe, in our ignorance, some of us gave the impression that these tickets were a consolation prize for not being able to get in to see Bolt or Mo. But my children laughed in my face at that.

“Dad, the Paralympics are better!” said Josh, and his sisters joined in. “Yeah, these people are amazing. Yeah, they have to be amazing even to get there in the first place, have you seen them? And then they do amazing things as well!”

At first I put this down to youthful enthusiasm and propaganda – including that jaw-dropping Channel 4 advertisement for “The Superhumans”. Paralympians had visited schools. Children had played goalball or seated volleyball. They were way ahead of their parents in understanding the Games. But then I began to watch.

The morning that Sarah and Barney Storey won medals on the same cycling track was a love story spun in gold. Half an hour’s yomp across the park, Ellie Simmonds won a race as thrilling as any that has been seen in the Aquatic Centre. The 100m clash between Jonnie Peacock and Oscar Pistorius was a sporting contest of the finest kind.

But to be honest, these events are easy to love. They are easy to watch and to understand. These are athletes who strive to match the non-disabled and who often race against and beat them.

The venues, the rituals and the kits have all been the same, so that some events have seemed like the Olympics Plus. Ilke Wyludda, a veteran German discus thrower, said last week: “It is unprecedented to have an 80,000 crowd at the Paralympics. The way the British have done it, the Games have become almost synonymous with the Olympics.”

But there has been another Paralympics, too. Another Games, far more challenging to the spectator. Easy and patronising terms like “brave” fail when you see a man who has no arms and only one leg win gold in the backstroke.

How are you supposed to react? By getting to your feet again and yelling for Juan Reyes until your throat goes raw, in tribute to the sheer bloody-mindedness that got him from Mexico to London 2012 in the first place, let alone that mind-boggling win. How is it possible for anyone to do that? Is it even backstroke?

These Games have caused us to question ourselves, as much as what we are seeing. The writer Melanie Reid, who became tetraplegic after falling off her horse, wrote as they began: “Never underestimate the challenge of life with devastating injury or damage, the extent of the sadistic battle involved in getting out of bed and facing every day. Never forget that this amounts to a shared hinterland of practical and emotional despair, above which every Paralympian has risen. But then, of course, that victory simply becomes a given.”

She continued: “The ability to defeat a screwed-up body gets the athletes merely to first base. Now comes the second great task, the years of dedication, self-sacrifice and sweat that will qualify them to perform on this particular international stage.”

We know that now. Some of us didn’t think about it before, in our blindness and indifference. We have learned. That’s why we give standing ovations to those who trail in last. Not because we pity them, but because that kind of world class determination deserves applause.

The International Olympic Committee has built a pseudo religion around the idea that it is not the winning but the taking part that counts – but at the Paralympics, that rhetoric becomes reality.

The Olympics often seem to worship youth, beauty and physical perfection. (The Americans are particularly devout, which may be why their media has almost entirely stayed away in the last couple of weeks, unable to watch something that goes against their aspirations and assumptions.) At the Paralympics, the competitors are older and their bodies are not perfect. There is physical beauty in abundance – the ceaseless smile of Hannah Cockroft, for example, lights up a television screen. But it is not always easy to be a spectator at these Games.

Take boccia. They say it has the skill of boules and the strategy of chess, but there is also something unsettling about watching a competitor so severely impaired that he can only roll the ball by starting it off with his head, so that it rolls down a slope. Should we even be watching? Of course we should. The sport allows us to see the human. We should have seen him before – that was our failing. The Games have helped us see victors, not victims.

The Games Maker Emily Yates, 19, who plays wheelchair basketball at home in Leeds, told me last week that people were looking at her differently now. “The taxi driver smiled at me because he thought I was a Paralympian. I thought, ‘He thinks I’m famous.’ I’m not, but that’s cool.”

My friend Catherine von Ruhland, who lives in south-west London and uses a dialysis machine three times a week, has come to the Games as often as possible. “I was impressed by what was happening in the Olympic Park as a whole, and not just in the sports arenas. Disabled people were accommodated, supported, acknowledged and given respect,” she said. “Walking through Kingston town centre after a visit to the Park I was struck by how odd it seemed that there was not one person in a wheelchair, without sight, or lacking one or more limbs, to be seen. During the Paralympics it has felt as if we’ve been given a glimpse of how we’re supposed to treat each other.”

It’s a fragile thing. The British athletes hid their lanyards during the opening ceremony in protest at the sponsorship of Atos, the company used by the Government to assess disability benefits. The booing of George Osborne was evidence of anger. One recent survey showed that the public thought people with disabilities were being treated unfairly; but another showed that some were still being called names and spat at in the street and in playgrounds.

So it’s not all good. Not by a long way. We won’t know for a while what lasting impact the Paralympics have had on us. But there are signs that it will be positive. Lives will be changed, if they haven’t already. Attitudes certainly have.

Our children have watched Paralympians compete on home soil. They have embraced them wholeheartedly as heroes in the same way as Olympians. Maybe even more so. That has to mean something.

As the most impressive and revelatory Games of all time come to an end today, we can be proud. I hope you saw it, Sharon. I hope you were there, in the stadium, in the old manor, watching. Jumping for joy. Cheering them all.

And I hope that old bouncer was, too.

IT was refreshing to discover that Paralympians are not saints. They are amazing athletes who have often overcome tremendous problems to find the motivation to compete at the highest level, but they are also human.

One of the Great Britain seven-a-side football team, who furiously disagreed with a decision that went against him, berated the referee in terms that had the television commentator apologising for such bad language in the middle of the afternoon.

And then there was the outburst from South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius who claimed the sprint rival who beat him, Brazilian Alan Oliveira, had an unfair advantage because of the length of his false legs.

Both are double amputees and compete on curved steel legs that have caused them to be named blade runners. Oscar did swiftly retract and congratulate Alan on his win in the spirit of the Games, but it showed even heroes have feet of clay. Or, in this case, not.

And it does conjure the possibility that without regulation, competitors might eventually race on stilt blades 6ft tall. One small step for man but a flipping great big one for an amputee.

Which brings me to that vexing question about whether there is a line you do not cross when talking and writing about people with disabilities. When it comes down to it, we are all human beings and we all have a sense of humour. But should humour be carte blanche?

Australian Adam Hill describes himself as a stand up comedian with only one leg to stand on as he was born without a right foot. He has been breaking barriers about comedy and the disabled on Channel 4’s late night Paralympic show The Last Leg.

As he says, the Australian paralympians are among the most outspoken. Blind soccer players call wheelchair athletes ‘crips’ and they, in turn, call the soccer players ‘blindies’.

But is it all right for the rest of us to laugh? Even when then humour is unintentional?

Some years ago my wife, Maria, and I were staying in Scarborough out of season and were having a drink in the Hole In The Wall pub. There were only a few customers and most seemed locals. I tried, as you do, to join in the craic around the bar.

Two lads, who had obviously been ensconced in the opposite corner for some time, were arguing about whether to have another or go home to their wives.

“If you’re not careful,” I said to the lad who seemed reluctant to have another drink, “he’ll get you legless.”

And, as the words left my mouth, my eyes went from the pair of crutches to the lad himself to see that he was already legless. One limb was missing at the knee.

Then there was the first double amputee hero I ever met. First and only, as it happens. It was Second World War fighter ace Douglas Bader. He lost his legs in a flying accident, had metal ones fitted that made him walk like Frankenstein’s monster and flew missions until he was shot down and captured. Even then, he tried several escapes. Eventually, the Germans confiscated his legs and sent him to Colditz.

I met him in the late 1960s when he flew into Blackpool Airport to open a new Blesma (British Limbless Ex-Servicemen’s Association) home in the town. His reception committee comprised me, a photographer and two airport officials. He walked stiff-legged across the tarmac to join us and was every inch the hero I remembered from the book and the film Reach For The Sky. A terrific bloke.

He was still breaking rules, too. At his home airfield, his own plane hadn’t been ready so he had simply borrowed one that was to fly himself north. Without permission.

A mechanic joined us, having run from the far side of the field. He was a Maltese chap and reminded Bader he had worked as ground crew for him. They shook hands warmly, exchanged pleasantries and then Bader said: “Right old chap. You’d better go, now.”

“I can’t, sir,” said the mechanic.

“Why not?”

“Sir. You’re standing on my foot.”

I have told the story many times and I’m sure Bader did, too. He didn’t count himself disabled. He just didn’t have legs, but everything else functioned, including his courage and his sense of humour. Just like the paralympians.

‘Britain’s Usain Bolt’ blitzed past his rivals, including South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, to roars from the capacity crowd.

Golden boy Jonnie Peacock sprinted into the history books last night when he won 100m gold.

Jonnie Peacock ecstatic as he crosses the line in the men's T44 100 metres

The 19-year-old – dubbed Britain’s Usain Bolt – blitzed past his rivals, including South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, to roars from the capacity crowd.

Peacock, who had his right leg amputated aged just five after contracting meningitis, ran an ecstatic lap of honour after the race on a night of glory for our athletes.

The teenager, from Cambridgeshire, was cheered on his family and friends in the T44 final for amputees as he finished in a Paralympic record time of 10.90 seconds.

Within seconds of crossing the line, Peacock sprinted to celebrate with team-mate Dan Greaves who was still competing in his discus final.

Speaking about contracting meningitis as a child, Jonnie said: “I don’t remember anything about the period except my mum driving me to the hospital.

“I was in my Power Rangers duvet and she was speeding through a few red lights to get me there.

“They say people can block out bad episodes they don’t want to remember, or perhaps I was just too young to remember it all.”

Bladerunner Pistorius, 25, missed out on the medals after finishing fourth.

America’s Richard Browne won silver and South Africa’s Arnu Fourie took silver.

Wheelchair superstar David Weir claimed his third gold of the Games in the T54 800m as the Stadium erupted.

Weir – dubbed the Weirwolf – ripped his shirt open as he stormed across the finishing line and David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ rang out.

Weir, who has the marathon left to come on Sunday, now even has his own battle cry thanks to the werewolf howls his team-mates have developed, adapted from the rock song Werewolves Of London by Warren Zevon.

And as he spoke to TV crews, his GB team-mates turned up in werewolf masks in tribute to his nickname.

The 33-year-old, who has been unable to use his legs since birth, had already taken the 1,500m and the 5,000m titles.

But his pregnant fiancee Emily Thorne watched from home – because she is expecting the couple’s second child next month.

Miss Thorne, 23, said she decided to stay away because going to the Olympic Stadium for the final would be too much to take.

Afterwards, the dad-of-two said: “That was hard work. I had to dig deep.

“I’ve really got to thank Emily back home on the phone for keeping me calm and relaxed. This one’s for my children, This one’s for my kids tonight.

“You always have doubts. It’s a strong field. You can’t underestimate anyone.”

He told how he was roared on the the line by discus thrower Dan Greaves who was in gold medal position in his event.

He said: “I heard Greavesie on the last bend shouting to keep me going. He’s got to concentrate on his own thing. It’s amazing.

“I probably don’t seem like I’m enjoying it but I’m tired.

“I can’t wait to see Emily and Mason tomorrow. That’s going to cheer me up.”

Weir, who was born with a spinal cord transection that prevents him from using his legs, is a legend of Paralympic sport and has also won the London Marathon six times.

We had a message via the LLIC Website from Samantha Brown from ‘betty’ of Channel 4.

They are looking for ” inspirational single people” who might be interested in taking part in the new series of The Undateables. The first series was apparently a huge success in both ratings and critical acclaim and Samantha feels The Undateables2 represents a “great opportunity to continue to create a greater understanding about the issues and prejudices that are faced”.

I’ve posted the story on the LLIC Website so, to avoid duplication, please follow the link to find out more if you might be interested in taking part.

Jonnie Peacock was so stunned when he crossed the finish line of the Paralympic amputee 100 metres final he looked immediately to the scoreboard for confirmation.

Jonnie Peacock celebrating after winning gold in the 100m

Had he really just demolished a class field including the former world record holder Oscar Pistorius, young gun Blake Leeper and the 200m victor Alan Oliveira?

Said the world’s newest speedster: “It was absolutely surreal, I didn’t believe it when I crossed the line and I wanted to see it on the scoreboard.” The crowd was chanting his name. David Bowie’s Hero was blasting and Peacock suddenly broke into a broad smile. Straight away he was more concerned about his time – about three tenths off what he thought he could run. He clocked 10.9sec.

“What was the wind reading?” he kept asking officials. When told the conditions were flat and no wind at all, he professed disappointment. “I should have run quicker, I should have run faster than that. I am not very happy then.”

Peacock, 19, said he didn’t have nerves before the race, and the only doubts about winning the race occurred at the 60m mark.

“I knew I was in the lead but thought ‘oh dear this is when Oscar comes back’ and Blake is really fast at that point too. It was worrying, that was my biggest mental battle, I needed to stay strong, but that’s when you see me rocking a bit.”

Pistorius, who finished outside of the medals in fourth place, acknowledged the T44 class of competition had crossed a generational divide.

“I was a little bit disappointed not to be on the podium but to be part of a race like that is inspiring,” said the South African, admitting to being tired in his fifth race of the week.

“Tonight this was one of the best races I have ever been in, all of the athletes in this field will be household names. But there is something definitely happening in the Paralympic movement that is making me emotional. I don’t mind if I don’t finish on the podium if the sport is getting better and better.”

Pistorius promised a special race in his favoured 400m distance in tonight’s heats and Saturday’s final. “I promise you something special for that,” he said.

Peacock said he could still remember racing Pistorius at the 2010 BT Paralympic world cup where he was in an adjoining lane for the 100m race.

“This guy is the legend and I was in the lane next to him, I took a big chunk off my time and my coach said to me, you will start to plateau and nearly three years later I still haven’t hit that plateau.”

Meanwhile the silver medallist Richard Browne of the United States praised Peacock’s cool-headedness in the midst of the crowd frenzy and predicted that Pistorius will be back in the 100m medals very soon.

“To perform how he did was amazing and we are going to see amazing things from him in the future,” Browne said.

“I think this is new generation, a new wave of athletes that will be around for a very long time.”

LONDON—Standing outside the Paralympics table-tennis arena at the ExCel Centre here Sunday, spectator Andrew Ure said he’d been enjoying the games, but also had “a lot of questions about it in my mind.” For instance, what’s the difference between class 32 and 34 in athletics?

Jamaica's Alphanso Cunninghan competes in the men's javelin throw F52/53 at the Paralympics in London on Tuesday.

In the effort to level the Paralympic playing field, a group of doctors, psychologists and sports biomechanists must divvy up the 4,200 athletes into groups of roughly equal ability.

The goal, say Paralympic officials, is to ensure that medal winners succeed because of their training, skill and mental focus—not because they have a milder disability than their rivals.

“We have to ensure fair competition,” Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee and a former British Paralympian, said at a media workshop last week at the Museum of London Docklands. “That’s the principle from where we’re coming.”

But this isn’t always explained to spectators. At venues around London during the first four days of the Paralympics, parallel events in different classes—such as repeated 50-meter backstroke races at the Aquatics Centre—were introduced just by class number.

“To give a number is less interesting to people than to say, this is an athlete with such and such a disability,” said Ure, a London-based consultant, who added that he didn’t understand why in some classes athletes in wheelchairs competed against opponents who didn’t use chairs but had dwarfism.

Brendan McMullan, a spokesman for the London organizing committee, said it does attempt to inform spectators about classification, through emails before events, online, in daily programs, through in-ear radio commentary at some venues and via films shown at the start of each session.

But the media workshop demonstrated that classification is a bit complicated to explain quickly. It involves multiple stages and testers, and occasional appeals. To pull it off, classifiers have to contend with evolving abilities—as well as with outright cheating.

Lying about a physical disability is difficult because part of classification involves observing athletes in competition. “When you go onto the floor, it’s difficult to hide the function that you have,” said Alan Ash, a retired British wheelchair-rugby player.

Amir Laksari, a founder of Hackney Sparrows Wheelchair Basketball Club, a London team that plays in the London borough of Hackneynot far from Olympic Park, said that at lower levels of the sport cheating is common. “I’ve been to tournaments in Spain and Italy where they’ve had one-pointers who can walk,” Laksari said, referring to the sport’s classification system in which one-pointers have the least function. However, he added, “at the Paralympics, they crack down. It’s a competition issue. In order to cut the drama and humiliation, they get it right.”

Classification by ability occurs in many Olympic sports, as well—between men and women, or between different weights of athletes in combat and lifting sports—but not to nearly the same degree as in the Paralympics. One result: There are a lot more medals to be had in the Paralympics, with 503 medal events compared to 302 in the Olympics, which had 150% more athletes.

One of the toughest parts of the classification process is finding a balance between subdividing athletes into increasingly smaller pigeonholes, to better place them among peers of the same ability level, while ensuring there are enough athletes in each classification to make it competitive.

Classification used to be pegged to minute differences between athletes, said Anne Hart, chairperson of the IPC classification committee. Before 2007, it was based on medical categories, a byproduct of Paralympic sport’s roots in rehabilitation at England’s Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Since then, in a bow to the Paralympic movement’s increased emphasis on elite sports, classification has been based more on sports function. That means two athletes without lower-limb function—one because of a spinal-cord injury and one because of amputation of each leg above the knee—could compete in the same class, whereas previously they used to be separated.

Making classification even more specific would increase fairness, but there are limits to what is practical. “It’s all about economics, and the number of events you can have,” said Jan Burns, head of eligibility for Inas, a nonprofit that oversees classification for intellectual disability.

One way to ensure athletes compete on a fair playing field while reducing the number of events is to combine classes, but adjust athletes’ scores based on the extent of their disability. The Paralympics does this in some athletics events, such as discus throwing—which means the competitor who throws the discus the farthest may not win gold, if another thrower with a more severe disability exceeds expectations for his class.

That can make for opaque results, though. It’s not obvious to the crowd who won, but instead it’s based on applying a formula to the raw totals. Omega, the Paralympics sponsor and official scorekeeper for the games, erred in tallying the scores for the F35/36 women’s discus by using an outdated formula, which meant the gold medal was awarded to the wrong athlete on Friday. Omega and the London organizing committee subsequently apologized for the blunder.

“I must say it was a bit unfortunate,” said Masoom Raza, a senior analyst with U.K. Athletics, who developed the formula for adjusting scores, called the Raza System, that was adopted before these games. He said overall the system has worked well and can be adapted for more sports to streamline the competition. That is up to the IPC, though, and spokesman Craig Spence said the organization is moving in the opposite direction: “Our aim for future games is to try eliminate combined events so that it is clearer to all on who is the winner.”

In team sports, subdividing athletes further has fewer downsides than in individual events. Rather than competing in different classes, teams in wheelchair basketball and rugby must field teams on the court with a maximum total ability score. The higher an athlete’s classification number, the greater his ability—so players with lower numbers must share the court to keep the total score down.

Even wheelchair basketball’s nine classification groups leave room for advantages on the edges. “If you’re on the high end of 2.5, vs. the low end of 3.0, that’s an advantage,” said Jeremy Lade, an American wheelchair-basketball player, although he added that the mix of players on the floor is more important than getting a slight edge in classification. Lade is classified as a 2.5.

When athletes object to their own classification or to an opponent’s, they can protest—as 25 athletes did at the Beijing Games. “There might be an athlete who slips through,” said Hart. “I’ve probably made a mistake or two in classifying.”

By: Carl Bialik

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* See also previous post *

*Also a link to The Mirror’s excellent information page where you can find answers to all your questions about the Paralympics….*

These links tend to be short-lived so please let me know if you hit a blank page!

Having spent years fighting for the right to race his own blades, Oscar Pistorius is now complaining about a rival’s artificial limbs after a stunning loss at the London Paralympics on Sunday.

Alan Fonteles Cardoso Oliveira of Brazil and Oscar Pistorius battle it out at the finish of the Men's 200m - T44 final

The “Blade Runner” had never been beaten over 200 meters in Paralympic competition until Brazilian sprinter Alan Oliveira came storming down the home straight past him to win by 0.07 seconds.

The icon of the Paralympics had been dethroned and wasn’t taking it lightly.

Pistorius immediately raised concerns with Paralympic officials that Oliveira’s surge came through rule-bending blades helping with the late strides.

Pistorius, who won a legal battle to compete wearing carbon-fiber blades alongside able-bodied runners at the Olympics last month, suggested that Oliveira ran with longer prosthesis than should be allowed.

Oliveira won gold in 21.45 seconds after overtaking Pistorius at the line at Olympic Stadium in the T44 classification race in front of a capacity 80,000-strong crowd.

“Not taking away from Alan’s performance – he’s a great athlete – but these guys are a lot taller and you can’t compete (with the) stride length,” Pistorius said in a broadcast interview. “You saw how far he came back. We aren’t racing a fair race. I gave it my best. The IPC (International Paralympic Committee) have their regulations. The regulations (allow) that athletes can make themselves unbelievably high.

“We’ve tried to address the issue with them in the weeks up to this and it’s just been falling on deaf ears.”

While Pistorius tried to be more magnanimous later, he still claimed it was “ridiculous” that Oliveira could win after being eight meters adrift at the 100-meter mark and deny him a third straight 200 gold.

“He’s never run a 21 second-race and I don’t think he’s a 21-second athlete,” Pistorius said. “I’ve never lost a 200-meter race in my career.”

The South African double amputee had the support of compatriot Arnu Fourie, who finished fourth and questioned Oliveira’s lengthened blades

“Ask anyone out there – does it look weird? Does it look out of proportion?” Fourie said. “I think 99 percent of people are going to tell you, ‘Yes it does.’”

“If they are within the rules you can’t fight the athlete, so you’re going to have to fight the formula and fight the rule if we’re going to do anything about it.”

Oliveira insisted he had not broken the rules, and expressed disappointment with Pistorius’ criticism.

“He is a really great idol, and to listen to that coming from a really great athlete is really difficult,” Oliveira said through a translator. “I don’t know who he’s picking a fight with, it’s not with me.”

The 20-year-old Oliveira was backed by Paralympic leaders.

“There is a rule in place regarding the length of the blades, which is determined by a formula based on the height and dynamics of the athlete,” the IPC said in a statement. “All athletes were measured today prior to competition by a classifier and all were approved for competition.”

Paralympic officials, including the top medical official, agreed to meet with Pistorius after the race.

“He wanted to voice his concerns and we listened to those concerns,” said IPC spokesman Craig Spence, who was at the meeting. “The IPC will meet with Oscar at a later date to discuss his concerns once the emotion of tonight is out of the way.”

The second half of Pistorius’ year in London is not running to script.

At the start of last month, Pistorius reached the 400 semifinals and the 4×400 relay final. Competing at the Olympics was some achievement alone, though the medals were meant to come at the Paralympics.

But Oliveira could stand in the way of Pistorius and glory for the rest of the games, competing in all of his events.

Next up is the 4×100 relay on Wednesday before Pistorius defends his titles in the 100 on Thursday and 400 on Saturday.

Earlier Sunday in the Olympic Stadium, a Ukrainian athlete who was stripped of her Paralympic discus title after an error by scorers was told she would be allowed to keep her gold medal.

Mariia Pomazan had been relegated to silver after officials said the placings from Friday’s F35/36 final were incorrect because an outdated scoring system had been used. China’s Wu Qing was promoted to first place.

However, the IPC that in the “spirit of fair play,” Pomazan would be allowed to keep her gold although it would not be added to Ukraine’s medal tally.

She said she was “extremely emotional” and called it an “unforgettable experience.”

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* Was Oscar Pistorius right to complain about the length of Alan Oliveira’s blades? Is the ruling fair? Does it mean that those with lower amputations and thence shorter prosthetic blades are never going to be able to compete fairly with higher b/k amputatees? We’d love to hear your views. *

Please click HERE to go to the CBS site where you’ll find a gallery of Oscar Pistorius images.

The 2012 Paralympics in London involves 20 sports but not all disability categories can compete in each event.

Each sport has different physical demands and so has its own set of classifications.

ARCHERY

Archery is open to athletes with a physical disability and classification is broken up into three classes:

ARW1: Wheelchair users with impairment in all four limbs.

ARW2: Wheelchair users with full arm function.

ARST (standing): Athletes who compete in a standing position and also those who need to use a stool for support because of poor balance.

ATHLETICS

All disability groups can compete in athletics but a system of letters and numbers is used to distinguish between them.

A letter F is for field athletes, T represents those who compete on the track, and the number shown refers to their disability.

11-13: Track and field athletes who are visually impaired. Blind athletes compete in class 11 and are blindfolded and run with a guide runner. Athletes in class 12 are visually impaired but may choose to run with a guide.

20: Track and field athletes who are intellectually disabled. There are three events for men and women in the London programme – 1500m, long jump and shot put.

31-38: Track and field athletes with cerebral palsy or other conditions that affect muscle co-ordination and control. Athletes in class 31-34 compete in a seated position; athletes in class 35-38 compete standing.

40: Track and field athletes with short stature (dwarfism).

42-46: Track and field amputees. In class 42-44 the legs are affected and in class 45-46 the arms are affected. Athletes in these classes compete standing and do not use a wheelchair

T51-54: Wheelchair track athletes. Athletes in class 51-53 are affected in both lower and upper limbs while T54 athletes have partial trunk and leg functions

F51-58: Wheelchair field athletes. Athletes in F51-54 classes have limited shoulder, arm and hand functions and no trunk or leg function while F54 athletes have normal function in their arms and hands. In the F55-58 classes the trunk and leg function increases.

BOCCIA

Boccia (a bowling game) is open to athletes with cerebral palsy and other severe physical disabilities (eg muscular dystrophy) who compete from a wheelchair, with classification split into four classes.

BC1: Players with cerebral palsy who are able to use their hands or feet to consistently propel a ball into play. BC1 athletes may have an aide on court to pass them their ball before each shot.

BC2: Players with cerebral palsy who are able to use their hands to consistently propel a ball into play and have greater functional ability than a BC1 athlete.

BC3: Players with cerebral palsy or other disability with locomotor dysfunction in all four limbs who are unable to throw or kick a ball into play and as such are permitted to use an assistive device such as a ramp to propel the ball into play and are supported by an assistant (“ramper”) who adjusts the ramp on the instructions of the player.

BC4: Players who do not have cerebral palsy but have another disability with locomotor dysfunction in all four limbs and have similar functional ability to BC2 athletes. Conditions such as muscular dystrophy, spina bifida and tetraplegia will fall under this classification.

CYCLING

Cycling is open to amputees, “les autres” (athletes whose disability does not fall under one of the other categories), athletes with cerebral palsy and visually impaired athletes, competing in individual road race and track events.

Athletes with physical impairments either compete on bicycles (road and track), handcycles or tricycles (road only).

Visually impaired athletes compete on tandems with a sighted guide.

Handcycle sport classes H1-4: Cyclists in H1-3 compete in a reclined position. H1 athletes have no trunk or leg function and limited arm function while H3 athletes have no leg function but good trunk and arm function. H4 athletes sit on their knees and use their arms and trunk.

Tricycle T1-2: Races for athletes who are unable to ride a bicycle because of a condition affecting their balance and co-ordination. Athletes in the T1 class have more serious co-ordination problems then T2 athletes.

Bicycle C1-5: Cyclists may have a condition like cerebral palsy or have a leg or arm amputation. C1 athletes have the most severe limitation while C5 athletes meet the minimum disability criteria.

EQUESTRIAN

All disability groups can take part in equestrian sport with Para-dressage the only event on the Paralympic programme.

Riders are divided into five grades.

Grade Ia: Severely disabled riders with impairments of all limbs and poor trunk control who usually use a wheelchair in daily life.

Grade Ib: Riders with either severely reduced trunk control and minimal upper limb conditions or moderate upper and lower limb and trunk conditions. Most use a wheelchair in daily life.

Grade II: Riders have a very limited ability in both lower limbs and a good trunk balance, or milder limitations in upper and lower limbs with reduced trunk control. Some use a wheelchair in daily life.

Grade III: Ambulant riders (those able to walk independently) who have impairments in both arms or have no arms, or moderate impairments of all four limbs. This category also includes blind riders and those with conditions such as dwarfism.

Grade IV: Ambulant athletes with either impaired vision or reduced motion or muscle strength or impaired arm or leg function.

FOOTBALL

Five-a-side football is played by those with a visual impairment, while seven-a-side football is played by athletes with cerebral palsy.

All players in the five-a-side game must wear eyeshades except the goalkeeper, who is sighted but cannot leave the area. There are no offside rules.

The football contains ball bearings to produce a noise when it moves.

Seven-a-side football consists of players from the C5, C6, C7 and C8 divisions, rated according to limb control and co-ordination problems when running.

All classes are comprised of ambulant athletes. Those in class five are least physically able; those in class eight are minimally affected.

At least one C5 or C6 class athlete must be on the field at all times and a team is not allowed to have more than two C8 players on the field.

GOALBALL

Goalball is played by visually impaired athletes and a special rule means there is no need for classification.

Participants wear black-out masks to ensure everyone, whether blind or visually impaired, competes equally. The masks are checked during the game.

The ball has bells inside it to help to orientate the players and, as a result, the game is played in total silence.

JUDO

Judo is contested by visually impaired athletes only. There is no categorisation as competitors are divided by weight in the same way as able-bodied athletes.

The main difference is that athletes begin the bout “gripped up” (holding each other) rather than apart.

POWERLIFTING

Powerlifting is open to all athletes with a physical disability and is classified by weight alone.

Powerlifters competing at the Paralympics have disabilities in their lower limbs or hips, including paralysis, cerebral palsy and lower limb amputation.

Both male and female competitors take part in 10 weight classes.

ROWING

Rowing is divided into four boat classes.

AM1x: A fixed-seat single scull boat for men. Athletes have full movement in their arms only.

AW1x: A fixed-seat single scull boat for women. Athletes have full movement in their arms only.

TA2x: A two-person, mixed-gender scull for athletes with trunk and arm movement only.

LTA4+: A two-male and two-female boat, plus cox with sliding seats. Open to athletes with an impairment but who have movement in the legs, trunk and arms. A boat can include a maximum of two visually impaired athletes who wear blindfolds during training and competition.

SAILING

Sailing is a multi-disability sport where athletes from the amputee, cerebral palsy, visually impaired, wheelchair and les autres groups can compete together.

There are three sailing classes: the Sonar, which is a mixed three-person crew, the Skud-18, a mixed two-person class, and the 2.4mR event, which is single-crewed.

Competitors are ranked according to a points system from one to seven, where low points are given to the severely disabled and high points for the less disabled.

Each crew of three is allowed a maximum of 14 points between them.

In the Skud-18 category, one sailor has a more severe level of disability (equivalent to a class one or two) while the other must have a minimum level of disability that prevents them competing on equal terms with able-bodied sailors.

Single-handed sailors must have that same minimum level of disability.

SHOOTING

Shooters are divided into wheelchair and standing groups.

These divisions are split into six sub-classes, each of which determines the type of mobility equipment the competitor is allowed to use.

SH1: For pistol and rifle competitors who do not require a shooting stand.

SH2: For rifle competitors who have an upper limb disability and require a shooting stand.

SWIMMING

Swimming is the only sport that combines the conditions of limb loss, cerebral palsy (co-ordination and movement restrictions), spinal cord injury (weakness or paralysis involving any combination of the limbs) and other disabilities (such as dwarfism and major joint restriction conditions) across classes.

1-10: Allocated to swimmers with a physical disability. The lower the number, the more severe the disability.

11-13: Allocated to swimmers with a visual impairment.

14: Allocated to swimmers with an intellectual disability.

The prefix S denotes the class for freestyle, backstroke and butterfly. SB denotes the class for breaststroke, and SM denotes the class for individual medley.

The prefix and class number provide a range of classifications, from swimmers with severe disability (S1, SB1, SM1) to those with minimal disability (S10, SB9, SM10).

In any one class, swimmers may start with a dive or already in the water. This is taken into account when classifying an athlete.

Swimmers may have a classification that varies according to their event – for example, it may change between breaststroke and backstroke, according to the effect of their disability on the event in question.

Class 14 returns to the Paralympic Games in London after being omitted in Athens and Beijing.

TABLE TENNIS

Table tennis is played by athletes with a physical or intellectual disability divided into 11 classes.

1-5: Athletes competing from a wheelchair, with class one the most severely disabled and class five the least disabled.

6-10: Ambulant athletes, with class six the most severely disabled and class 10 the least.

11: Athletes with an intellectual disability.

SITTING VOLLEYBALL

Sitting volleyball is contested by athletes with a physical disability with Britain competing for the first time in the sport in London in the men’s and women’s competitions.

There are two classes called Minimally Disabled (MD) and Disabled (D) and a team may only have one MD player on the court while the other five players have to be class D.

WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL

Basketball is open to wheelchair athletes, whose impairments may include paraplegia, lower limb amputation, cerebral palsy and polio.

Athletes are classified according to physical ability and are given a points rating between one and 4.5. One point equates to the most severe disability, 4.5 to the least.

Each team fields five players but may not exceed a total of 14 points at any time.

WHEELCHAIR FENCING

Fencing is open to wheelchair athletes, whose impairments may include spinal cord injuries, lower limb amputation and cerebral palsy and whose conditions prohibit them from competing against standing, able-bodied fencers.

Athletes competing in this event are split into two classes.

Category A: Athletes with good balance and recovery, and full trunk movement.

Category B: Athletes with poor balance and recovery, but full use of one or both upper limbs.

WHEELCHAIR RUGBY

Wheelchair rugby athletes are classified using a points system, with the most severely disabled athletes being graded at 0.5 points, rising to 3.5 points for the more able.

Each team is comprised of four players and is allowed a maximum of eight points on court at any one time.

WHEELCHAIR TENNIS

Tennis is played from a wheelchair with two classes – open and quad (disability in three or more limbs).

In wheelchair tennis competitions, players are allowed two bounces of the ball, the first bounce being within the bounds of the court.

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Hope you’re clear now!

London (CNN) — A day after setting a world record in the 200 meters qualifying heat, South African double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius goes for the gold in the event final at the London Paralympics on Sunday.

Oscar Pistorius

He’ll face a number of capable challengers, including other top qualifiers Brazilian Alan Fonteles Cardoso Oliveira, American sprinter Blake Leeper and South Africa’s Arnu Fourie.

On Saturday, the third day of the Games, Pistorius blazed through the men’s 200m-T44 qualifier with a world-record time of 21.30. The paralympic movement classifies events, using terms like T44, to group competitors based on their disability.

But the quest for gold has only begun for the 25-year-old.

Pistorius, who uses carbon fiber prosthetic blades, made it to the semifinals of the individual 400-meter and the 400-meter relay final at the Olympics last month, running against able-bodied athletes.

Besides the 200-meter run, he will also compete in the Paralympics in the men’s 100-meter-T44 (set for next Wednesday and Thursday) and the 400-meter-T44 (happening Friday and Saturday), both of which he won in Beijing four years ago.

He’s also part of South Africa’s 4 X 100-meter T42/T46 relay team, which is scheduled to race Wednesday. Competition was intense Saturday in Paralympic competitions in and around Great Britain’s capital, with 49 gold medals on the line across seven sports, including athletics, track cycling, swimming and equestrian.

Britain’s Richard Whitehead sprinted to victory earlier Saturday in the men’s 200m, setting a new world record in the process and shedding tears of joy at the finish. Team USA’s Shaquille Vance took the silver medal.

There was also drama in the velodrome Saturday.

Britain’s Neil Fachie, piloted by Barney Storey, smashed the world record to earn gold in the men’s individual B 1-kilometer time trial, an event on a tandem bicycle for the visually impaired.

There was bitter disappointment, though, for the cyclist whose record he took. World champion and fellow Briton Anthony Kappes, piloted by Craig Maclean, had his medal hopes dashed after the chain on their bike failed twice.

Britain’s Sarah Storey, wife of Barney Storey, made it a double gold for the household Saturday with victory in the women’s individual C4-5 500-meter time trial, while U.S. cyclist Jennifer Schuble took silver.

The win gave Sarah Storey, who was born without a functioning left hand, her second gold of the Games and an impressive 20 Paralympic medals in total across the swimming and cycling disciplines. She has also competed successfully against able-bodied athletes.

Gold medal in the men’s individual C4 cycling pursuit went to Carol-Eduard Novak from Romania, with silver for Jiri Jezek of the Czech Republic. Britain’s Jody Cundy took bronze, a day after he was disqualified for a false start in the time trial.

Australian world champion Michael Gallagher won the men’s individual C5 pursuit, holding Britain’s Jon-Allan Butterworth, a military veteran who lost an arm to a rocket attack in Iraq five years ago, to second place.

China’s Yin He set a world record in the women’s C1-2-3 500-meter time trial to take gold.

There is a tense wait ahead for Team USA’s 17-year-old Victoria Arlen, who earlier this week was ruled ineligible to swim at the Games by the International Paralympic Committee.

Arlen’s appeal against the ruling was upheld Thursday, meaning she could swim in Saturday’s 400-meter freestyle heats — winning hers by a convincing 19-second margin — but her classification is still subject to review by the IPC.

British medal hope Ellie Simmonds, also 17, won her heat in a time a fraction faster than Arlen, the world record holder. That order held up in the finals, with Simmonds setting a world record in finishing a second ahead of Arlen — with the two of them both 13 seconds faster than any other competitor.

Arlen’s classification problems came after fellow U.S. Paralympians Justin Zook and Mallory Weggeman were reclassified earlier this week. Arlen, from New Hampshire, was a talented able-bodied swimmer until a neurological disease left her paralyzed in both legs.

The complex system of disability classification, which ensures athletes compete against those who are similarly-abled, is considered an essential tool for the Paralympic movement.

On the track, the crowd gave a huge reception to Houssein Omar Hassan, who entered the Games on a wild card and is Djibouti’s first Paralympic runner. He finished nearly 7 minutes behind the next slowest competitor in the 1,500-meter race but was applauded for his spirit in finishing.

Over at Eton Manor, the first Paralympics-only venue to be built for the Games, the Netherlands’ wheelchair tennis star Esther Vergeer is looking to extend her decade-long dominance of the sport.

Vergeer — who already has five Paralympic wheelchair tennis titles, three in singles, two in doubles — beat Japan’s Kanako Domori in straight sets in the first round of the women’s singles. The rules for this competition are almost the same as for able-bodied tennis, but the ball is allowed to bounce twice.

In another display of dominance, Nigeria took its fifth powerlifting medal of the Games on Saturday, compliments of Esther Oyema in the women’s -48 kilograms competition.

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*Please go to the CNN Page for the full report including pictures and videos of Oscar Pistorius*

Please click HERE for the link to see more. (You’ll need to scroll down the page to the strip at the bottom of the photos.)

Martine Wright in action in the Sitting Volleyball, London 2012 Paralympics

When the faces of the people who died in the 7 July bomb attacks in London were broadcast the world over, during the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Martine Wright could have been forgiven for shuddering. She came closer than most to being in that sad roll of honour.

On that day seven years ago she had changed her travel plans and ended up on a Tube train just feet from the man who was to detonate a suicide bomb on the Circle Line at Aldgate. You probably know the rest – massive damage to her legs, which would later be amputated above the knee, and certainly only still alive because of the quick actions of an off-duty Metropolitan Police officer.

So when she positioned herself, agile and ready, on a Paralympic volleyball court yesterday it was the completion of a journey she herself has said she feels she was “meant to be on”.

The 3,000-strong crowd who turned out to watch the women’s GB sitting volleyball team play Ukraine probably all knew that at least one player on court was different from the rest, not because of her disability, but because of the story which led her to it. There are plenty of other athletes here at the Paralympic Games whose disability has its roots in war and violence – think of the Rwandan men’s sitting volleyball team, made up of Hutus and Tutsis whose savage war left almost a million dead, or the former soldiers who lost limbs in landmines.

The 7 July attacks, though, will for ever be linked to the day London won the chance to host the Games. I remember broadcasting 5 Live Breakfast from Stratford on the morning after the big announcement from the IOC. The message from the editor? “Celebration”. The tone of the programme from 6am-9am was just that. And then came the bombs.

Even as we were on air people like Martine already lay injured underground. As we left Stratford and the story emerged, the smiles faded to horror and disbelief. Martine didn’t know it that morning – she was hanging on to her life – but she was heading this way even then.

After recovery and rehabilitation she learnt to fly, married Nick, and gave birth to Oliver. Then came sitting volleyball and a Paralympic dream. So when little Oliver waved his banner saying “Go Mummy Go!” in a crowd which included Boris Johnson and Barbara Windsor, he and the rest of us knew that she would.

She came on at the end of the second set after a nervous start by her team-mates. The court is smaller than for standing volleyball and the net is lower so the game is often considerably faster. The players don’t exactly sit for long. Quick slides and lunges and deep serving make it a high-octane experience all round. Wright and her team-mates rallied and produced some impressive blocking against the European champions Ukraine. She was central to a pretty determined rally which went GB’s way to huge cheers from the crowd. They play the Netherlands next and she says that’s her main focus, not the attention she receives for her experience on 7 July, 2005.

While she laughs off suggestions that her appearance at the Paralympic Games is inspiring to fellow athletes and spectators alike – “it’s just me” is her retort – she must know that everyone who recoiled at the events of that day watch her perform and understand, even just for one fleeting moment, Prospero’s appeal to his daughter Miranda (enacted at the opening ceremony) to marvel at humanity.

By: Shelagh Fogarty for The Independent (1/9/2012)

Click HERE to go to the Webpage where you can view their “Everything you need to know about Sitting Volleyball” graphic

Allowing for the worst wet weather during Spring and Summer we have now completed the twelve regional finals of the Silver Jubilee Bader Cup and the twelve finalists will be looking forward to the Grand Final in Portugal where they will be staying at the Tivoli Lagos Hotel from Novemer 4 to 8 and playing the final on the famous Palmares Golf Course.

Because of the wet weather we had some forty plus golf clubs who were unable to play a qualifying round even when they re-arranged an alternative date, so it has effected the number of entries this year, and we can only hope that 2013 will bring some better weather into the UK. Most of you will have received the advance entry forms which your competition secretary can complete and return before December 31. However, from January 1 we will have circulated the details of the Bader Cup 2013 and posted the details and entry forms on www.thebadercup.co.uk and I am delighted to say that we have the same Portuguese sponsors on board along with Monarch Airlines.

One of the highlights this year is the two golfing holidays that our sponsors provided for golfers and their friends who competed in the Bader Cup, and we have already received a good response and reservations from players already. So if you are thinking of some sunshine golfing for a change why not take a look at the details, which can be found on the website (www.thebadercup.co.uk) The first one is the Gala Golf Tournament 27 October to 3 November, which is open to individuals or groups of both sexes. The other is the New Year Mixed Tournament from 27 December 2012 to 3 January 2013, which is open to mixed pairs, and an added bonus to this event is the wonderful New Years Eve Banquet and Cabaret evening including a six course meal.

So why not make up a party from your golf club and enjoy some sunshine golf for a change!

Finally we thank everyone for their support and look forward to meeting many of you again in the future at the regional finals.

Kind regards

John Southwick

Tournament Director

With the results now in from the Regional Finals held at Ely City Golf Club, Cambridgeshire, on the 28th August, all Regional Finals of the BADER CUP have now been played and all results are now recorded.

Ely City was actually the penultimate competition as Pitreavie was the last to be played but these results mark the end of another successful series of Regional Finals with Julie Dalton and Richard Dalton playing for Overstone Park triumphing against Kelly Saunders and Paul Saunders (Diss) to join the other winners in Portugal in November. Our congratulations to the winners, the runners up and to all who took part. We do hope that those of you who didn’t win this time will be back to play again next year. It’s certainly a final and a prize worth playing for!

The final score was:

Winners: Julie Dalton and Richard Dalton (Overstone Park): 39 points

Runners up: Kelly Saunders and Paul Saunders (Diss): 38 points

John Southwick also received this warming accolade from Barbara and Rod Hall, representing Belfairs Golf Club who took part in the Ely City Regional Finals:

“Dear Sir,

My wife and I played in the Regional Qualifier at Ely yesterday.

Congratulations and many thanks for providing an excellent day.

Ely City Golf Course is an exceptional venue and we will be striving hard to qualify as our

Club’s representatives again next year.

Best Regards,

Barbara & Rod Hall

Belfairs Golf Club”

As John said in his reply, we all at the Douglas Bader Foundation hope that they qualify again next year to represent Belfairs Golf Club and are very grateful to them for their support this year. We’re glad they enjoyed the venue and the competition.

With another round of BADER CUP Regional Finals played out, and only the Grand Finals to go, all at the Douglas Bader Foundation are sincerely grateful to all who have played a part in making the competition such a success so far this year despite the weather, which sadly cut a swathe through the qualifying rounds. The BADER CUP is now recognised to be the largest National Mixed Greensome Stableford Golf Tournament in Europe – an extraordinary achievement on the part of organisers, John Southwick and his partner, Pat, who still run the Tournament with such efficiency and panache. We are very thankful to them for their dedication and hard work, to all the participating Golf Clubs and competitors in both the qualifying and Regional Finals rounds and, of course, to our loyal and generous sponsors, Monarch Airlines, the Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort. The BADER CUP annually raises a considerable amount for the charity helping to enable us to continue our work on behalf of amputees and other disabled. Without you all there would be no BADER CUP.

We hope that those of you who haven’t made the Finals this year will come back for another attempt next year and that you have enjoyed the competition anyway. Many congratulations to the winners who will be flying out to Portugal in November to contest the Cup. We hope you have a very enjoyable Finals and some better weather to play in!

* You can go to the Regional Finals Results Page for a downloadable version of the full results of this competition and also see results from the other Finals.

Here, courtesy of CNN, is a link to some pictures from the ceremony for those of you who missed it.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/29/worldsport/gallery/paralympics-opening/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

We’ll be covering some of the sports so keep checking in but we’d also love to hear from you if you have any reports or opinions about the event.

We’ve just received the results from the BADER CUP Regional Finals played at Pitreavie Golf Club in Scotland on the 29th August. The winners were Nina Morrison and Graham Howarth playing for Pumpherston who won with 41 points – many congratulations to them – with the 2nd and 3rd placed couples both achieving 40 points and the result being resolved by countback. A close thing but Linda Linsay and Derek Lindsay achieved a B9 score of 19 beating Sally Park and Craig Geekie into 3rd place.

I understand from John Southwick that it was only through sheer determination that the competition was played at all. The weather hasn’t been kind to the BADER CUP this year and, for a while, it looked as though it was going to beat the Pitreavie Regional Finalists. Thankfully, with a small break in the rain, some Olympic spirit and a lot of managerial ingenuity, a result was achieved.

Our congratulations to all 3 couples. Nina and Graham will now go on to contest the BADER CUP in the Grand Final in Portugal in November and we hope that the runners up will all come back for another attempt next year.

The final results were:

Winners: Nina Morrison & Graham Howarth (Pumpherston) – 41 points

Runners up: Linda Lindsay & Derek Lindsay (Marriott Dalmahoy) – 40 points (B9 – 19)

3rd: Sally Park & Craig Geekie (Deer Park) – 40 points (B9 – 16)

We are very grateful to all the competitors, the participating Golf Clubs, the organisers, John Southwick and his partner, Pat and our generous sponsors, Monarch Airlines, the Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort. Every year your combined efforts raise a considerable sum which goes towards enabling the Douglas Bader Foundation to continue its valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled. The BADER CUP is now recognised as the largest National Mixed Greensome Stableford golf competition in Europe, which is a great achievement and wouldn’t happen without your combined support and efforts.

* You can see the results in full and access them and those of the other Regional Finals in downloadable form on the Regional Finals Results Page.

The last Regional Finals of the prestigious BADER CUP, the largest National Mixed Greensome Stableford Golf Tournament in Europe, have been played and results of the 2 last competitions will be published later today. However, before we get to them, here are the results of the Regional Final played at Newton Abbot (Stover) Golf Club in Devon on 16th August. I apologise for the delay in publishing these, I was away on holiday and I’m afraid they slipped through the e-net! I’m very sorry for any inconvenience or disappointment caused by this delay.

Newton Abbot was another close contest with all the 3 top-scoring couples getting 39 points and the final winners decided on countback. This gave Michelle Fenge and Andrew Fenge playing for Libbaton victory over Kerry Shaw and John Shaw (Parkstone), and Karen Allsop and Tony Allsopp (Tiverton). Many congratulations to all 6 on an exciting contest. Michelle and Andrew will go on to play for the Bader Cup in Portugal in November and we sincerely hope that Kerry and John and Karen and Tony will return next year to try again.

Here are the results:

Winners: Michell Fenge & Andrew Fenge (Libbaton): 39 points (B9 – 20)

Runners up: Kerry Shaw & John Shaw (Parkstone): 39 points (B9 – 19)

3rd: Karen Allsopp & Tony Allsopp (Tiverton): 39 points (B9 – 17)

Every year the BADER CUP raises a considerable amount for the Douglas Bader Foundation and we are extremely grateful to all the competitors, the participating Golf Clubs, our generous sponsors, Monarch Airlines, the Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort for your part in raising these valuable funds to help us to continue our work on behalf of amputees and other disabled. Thanks also, of course, always to John Southwick and his partner, Pat, for organising the tournament and running it so efficiently.

You can see all the results with downloadable results in full on the Regional Finals Results Page.

We now have the results from the Regional Finals of the prestigious BADER CUP (now recognised as the largest national Mixed Greensome Stableford Golf Tournament) from Bransford Golf Club, Worcester, which was played out on the 21st August.

The winners were Isobel Robertson and Dale Robertson playing for Cold Ashby who finished with 43 points beating Rachel Frizzell and Nathan Whitaker representing Beedles Lake on 42 points.

The final results were:

Winners: Isobel Robertson & Dale Robertson (Cold Ashby) – 43 points

Runners up: Rachel Frizzell & Nathan Whitaker (Beedles Lake) – 42 points

Many congratulations to the winners who will journey to the Algarve to take part in the Grand Final in November, and all who took part. We hope that those of you who didn’t win this time will come back for another go next year.

Every year the BADER CUP raises a considerable amount for the Douglas Bader Foundation to help us to continue our valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled. We are extremely grateful to all the competitors, the participating Golf Clubs, our generous sponsors, Monarch Airlines, the Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach and Golf Resort, as well as organisers John Southwick and his partner Pat who make the whole competition and its valued contribution possible.

More information about the BADER CUP can be found in the dedicated pages on the Website.

]]> http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/2012/08/25/the-bader-cup-regional-finals-results-from-bransford-golf-club/feed/ 0 http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/2012/08/25/the-bader-cup-latest-regional-finals-results-whitchurch-cardiff/ http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/2012/08/25/the-bader-cup-latest-regional-finals-results-whitchurch-cardiff/#comments Sat, 25 Aug 2012 08:01:30 +0000 wendy http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/?p=6548 The results from the latest Regional Finals of the prestigious BADER CUP ( now recognised as the largest national Mixed Greensome Stableford Golf Tournament) have come in from Whitchurch (Cardiff) Golf Club where the Regional Final was played on the 22nd August. There have been several very close competitions this year and Whitchurch was another [...]]]>

The results from the latest Regional Finals of the prestigious BADER CUP ( now recognised as the largest national Mixed Greensome Stableford Golf Tournament) have come in from Whitchurch (Cardiff) Golf Club where the Regional Final was played on the 22nd August.

There have been several very close competitions this year and Whitchurch was another that went to the wire with all 3 top scoring pairs achieving 40 points and the result being decided on a countback. The competition was eventually won by Julia Barham and Alan Barham playing for Whitchurch. Many congratulations to them and to the runners up in an exciting finish.

The final results were:

Winners: Julia Barham & Alan Barham (Whitchurch, Cardiff, Golf Club) (-2 points): 40 points (B9 – 23)

Runners up: Emma Limer & Russ Bourton (Worlebury): 40 points (B9 – 18) (B6 – 13)

3rd: Kiera Probert & Martin Probert (Tawe Valley): 40 points (B9 – 18) (B6 – 10)

It is worth pointing out that the winners’ achievement was all the more note-worthy as they started with a 2 point deduction for representing the home golf club. It is the first time for many years that the home golf club have had a winner and despite this penalty, Julia Barham and Alan Barham managed to win through on a countback. Very well done!

Every year the BADER CUP raises a considerable amount for the Douglas Bader Foundation to help us to continue our valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled. We are extremely grateful to all the competitors, the participating Golf Clubs, our generous sponsors, Monarch Airlines, the Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach and Golf Resort, as well as organisers John Southwick and his partner Pat who make the whole competition and its valued contribution possible.

More information about the BADER CUP can be found in the dedicated pages on the Website.

]]> http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/2012/08/25/the-bader-cup-latest-regional-finals-results-whitchurch-cardiff/feed/ 0 http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/2012/08/24/the-bader-cup-some-more-regional-final-results-birchwood-golf-club/ http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/2012/08/24/the-bader-cup-some-more-regional-final-results-birchwood-golf-club/#comments Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:30:31 +0000 wendy http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/?p=6540 The Regional Finals Results of the prestigious BADER CUP are still under way and we’ve just received the results from the Regional Finals at Birchwood Golf Club in Cheshire, played on the 20th August. Again it was a close finish with the winner being decided by B9 points but in the end Milly Eaton and [...]]]>

The Regional Finals Results of the prestigious BADER CUP are still under way and we’ve just received the results from the Regional Finals at Birchwood Golf Club in Cheshire, played on the 20th August.

Again it was a close finish with the winner being decided by B9 points but in the end Milly Eaton and Chris Payne playing for Skipton Golf Club prevailed. Many congratulations to them and to the runners up, Helen Wells and Jonathan Wells, playing for Mold who ran them a close second, and to all others who took part. We hope that those of you who didn’t win this time will be back to try again next year.

The final results were as follows:

Winners: Milly Eaton & Chris Payne (Skipton): 37 points (B9 – 21)

Runners up: Helen Wells & Jonathan Well (Mold): 37 points (B9 – 14)

Milly Eaton and Chris Payne will join the other winning couples in the Algarve for the Grand Final between the 4th – 8th November. It’s worth mentioning that Milly Eaton is the younger sister of Lucy Eaton, who won her regional finals 2 years ago and went on to Portugal to play in the Grand Final. Sadly she didn’t win but perhaps Milly can go one better this year! Certainly a family of talented golfers.

The BADER CUP, now recognised to be the largest National Mixed Greensome Stableford golf competition, annually raises a considerable amount for the Douglas Bader Foundation. This contribution is greatly appreciated and helps the charity to continue its valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled. We are indebted to all the competitors, the participating Golf Clubs, our generous sponsors, Monarch Airlines, The Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort, not to mention, of course, the organisers, John Southwick and his partner, Pat. Without you all, the BADER CUP and its valuable contribution to the charity wouldn’t happen.

]]> http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/2012/08/24/the-bader-cup-some-more-regional-final-results-birchwood-golf-club/feed/ 0 http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/2012/08/24/bader-braves-bodmin-flying-day-cancelled/ http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/2012/08/24/bader-braves-bodmin-flying-day-cancelled/#comments Fri, 24 Aug 2012 13:40:27 +0000 wendy http://douglasbaderfoundation.com/?p=6536 Dear BADER BRAVES and families, It was with great regret that, thanks to decidedly inclement weather, the decision was made to postpone the Young Aviators Day at Bodmin Airfield, Cornwall, on Saturday 18th August. So – I’m afraid that, yet again this year, we have been beaten by the weather. However, all is not lost [...]]]> Dear BADER BRAVES and families,

It was with great regret that, thanks to decidedly inclement weather, the decision was made to postpone the Young Aviators Day at Bodmin Airfield, Cornwall, on Saturday 18th August.

So – I’m afraid that, yet again this year, we have been beaten by the weather. However, all is not lost and we are hoping to be able to reschedule this Flying Day for some time in September. Please keep checking in for information.

We greatly apologise for any inconvenience and disappointment caused to our Braves and their families as a result of this but it was entirely beyond our control.

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* Please note that Wendy is on holiday so posts are somewhat minimal at the moment. Normal excellent service will be resumed at the beginning of September! *

We have received more Regional Finals results from the prestigious Bader Cup.

The latest are from Newbury & Crookham Golf Club where the Finals were played on the 13th August when a very close competition was won by Jane Brackenbury & Stuart King playing for The West Berkshire. Many congratulations to them. The top 3 couples all finished on 43 points with second and third places being decided by B9 and B6 points.

The final scores were:

Winners: Jane Brackenbury & Stuart King (The West Berkshire): 43 points (B9 – 23)

Runners up: Lindsey Williams & Nick Cullum (Ealing): 43 points (B9 – 22) (B6 – 15)

3rd: Anna Greenwood & Rob Pannell (Aldwickbury Park): 43 points (B9 – 22) (B6 – 14)

Congratulations to all on a close run thing. We hope that those of you who came so close but didn’t quite make it this time will be back to try again next year.

Every year the BADER CUP raises considerable funds for the Douglas Bader Foundation to help us to continue our valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled and we are deeply grateful to all the competitors, the participating Golf Clubs, our generous sponsors and tireless organisers, John Southwick and his partner, Pat. Without you all, there would be no Bader Cup.

The Regional Finals for the prestigious BADER CUP, a mixed Greensome Stableford Competition, are being played and we’ve just received news of a “Hole-in-One”!

Many congratulations to Sue Evans from Les Mielles Golf Club in Jersey (Channel Isles) on this excellent achievement, accomplished during the Regional Final at Piltdown Golf Club in Sussex.

Sue Evans is an 8 handicap player and Lady Captain of Les Mielles Golf Club in Jersey. She holed out at the 7th hole a 149 yard Par 3 at the regional final held at Piltdown Golf Club on 8th August 2012. Although scoring 34 points with her partner Nick Plain who is the Club Captain they did not make the winning score to go on to the grand final in Portugal in November, which was won by Sue & John Hope of Hollingbury Park Golf Club who scored 41 points and won on count back from the competitors representing Nizels & Meon Valley Golf Clubs.

The Douglas Bader Foundation is extremely grateful to Sue and all the other competitors, the participating Golf Clubs, and our generous and loyal sponsors, Monarch Airlines, The Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort. Also to John Southwick and his partner, Pat, for running such an enjoyable and successful competition. The BADER CUP is now recognised to be Europe’s largest national mixed golf tournament and annually raises a considerable sum for the Foundation helping to enable it to continue its important work on behalf of amputees and other disabled. Without you all there would be no BADER CUP.

* For more information about the competition you can click on the link to visit the bespoke Website or click on the photograph of Sir Douglas to visit the Bader Cup Page on the Website *

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For anyone not in the know, here is a bit more about “holes-in-one”:

What is a “hole-in-one”?……

(From Wikipedia:)

In golf, a hole in one or hole-in-one (also known as an ace, mostly in American English) is when a player hits the ball directly from the tee into the cup with one shot. (It is not necessary that the ball go directly into the cup. It may hit other objects, or the ground, on its way.) This is most possible on a par 3 hole. Longer hitters have accomplished this feat on shorter par 4 holes. Nearly all par 4 and par 5 holes are too long for golfers to reach in a single shot; a hole in two on a par five (or a hole in one on a par 4) is known as an albatross, and is significantly rarer than a hole in one on a par 3.[1]

Hole in ones are extremely rare, and while it depends largely on the golfer’s skill, there is often also a great element of luck involved, although skill definitely increases the probability.[2]

Occasionally special events host a hole in one contest, where prizes as expensive as a new car, or cash awards sometimes reaching $4 million are offered if a contestant records a hole in one.[3] Usually such expensive prizes are backed by an insurance company who offers prize indemnification services. Actuaries at such companies have calculated the chance of an average golfer making a hole in one at approximately 12,500 to 1, and the odds of a tour professional at 2,500 to 1.[4]

Among the memorable holes in one, one occurred in the 1973 British Open when at age 71, Gene Sarazen made a hole in one. Bobby Charlton also made a hole in one in a celebrity charity game^[clarification needed^]. Earl Dietering of Memphis, Tennessee, 78 years old at the time, is believed to hold the record for the oldest person to make two holes in one during one round.[5] Kim Jong-il is alleged to have scored holes in one on a regular basis when he played, scoring 38 under par on his very first outing, which would necessitate a large number of holes in one. Kim Jong Il claimed five aces in that round.[6]

…and what are the odds of getting one?

(From About.com/Golf:)

Question: What Are the Odds of Making a Hole-In-One?

Some people seem to make aces left and right. Other golfers go their whole golfing careers without one. Just how hard is it to make a hole-in-one? Exactly what are the odds? The odds vary, it turns out, depending on who you ask, but we’re willing to bet that the odds aren’t as long as you might expect.

Answer: The odds of making a hole-in-one do vary somewhat, depending on the source and the numbers used for calculating the odds. One problem is that nobody knows the true number of aces made every year. There are numerous organizations that track holes-in-one, but not every ace that is made is reported. And, as we all know, not every ace that is reported was actually made!

In 1999, Golf Digest reported, “One insurance company puts a PGA Tour pro’s chances at 1 in 3,756 and an amateur’s at 1 in 12,750.”

That same issue reported that the “odds of an amateur making two holes-in-one in a round are 9,222,500 to 1.”

Ireland’s National Hole in One Club puts the odds a little longer for one ace: “The estimated odds of acing a hole with any given swing are one in 33,000.”

And an article in the magazine Navy Newsstand, citing Sports Illustrated as its source, put the odds at 45,000 to 1 for “scoring a hole-in-one on a typical par-3 golf hole.”

What about the insurance companies that sell “hole-in-one insurance” to tournament promoters? They must know the odds, right? One such company, SCA Promotions, says the odds of a golfer holing out from 150 yards is somewhere from 10,000 to 15,000 to 1.

But as close to an official source as exists on this topic is Golf Digest. That publication has provided “acer odds” since the 1950s, and in the year 2000 hired Francis Scheid, Ph.D., the retired chairman of the math department at Boston University, to calculate the odds using the latest and best information available at that time.

The odds Scheid came up with were lower than any others cited above: 5,000 to 1 for a “low-handicapper,” 12,000 to 1 for an “average player.” If you are a low-handicapper and play 1,000 rounds in your life, according to Scheid, you have a 20-percent chance of recording an ace. If you play 5,000 rounds, your odds are 1:1.

The Golf Digest study provided many great nuggets of information, even breaking the odds down by quality of play:

• Tour player making an ace: 3,000 to 1
• Low-handicapper making an ace: 5,000 to 1
• Average player making an ace: 12,000 to 1

Some other highlights from Scheid’s calculations:

• Average player acing a 200-yard hole: 150,000 to 1
• Two players from the same foursome acing the same hole: 17 million to 1
• One player making two holes-in-one in the same round: 67 million to 1

Source: Primary source is Golf Digest; more info on acer odds and holes-in-one can be found in the Sept. 2005 issue.

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SO – very well done, Sue!

We’ve just received more results from The Regional Finals for the prestigious BADER CUP, a mixed Greensome Stableford Competition. North Downs Golf Club (Surrey), which played their finals on the 7th August and Piltdown Golf Club (Sussex), which followed on the 8th August.

Many congratulations to the winners: Sheila Forster and Roger Forster (Prince’s), who won at North Downs with 40 points, and Sue Hope and John Hope (Hollingsbury Park), who won a closely contested battle at Piltdown with 41 points (B9-21)

The 2 winning couples will go on to play at the Grand Finals in Portugal, which will take place between the 4th – 8th November. They will fly there on Monarch Airlines and enjoy the wonderful facilities of the Tivoli Lagos Hotel while they’re not battling it out on the beautiful Lagos and Praia Courses at Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort. Definitely worth winning for! Details of the other results will be published as we receive them so keep checking in to see who will be joining them there.

We have received the following endorsement of the Bader Cup and the Foundation from   who took part in, but sadly didn’t win!, the Piltdown Regional Final:

Our congratulations and thanks to all who took part and to all participating Golf Clubs. Each year The BADER CUP raises a considerable amount to help the Douglas Bader Foundation to continue its valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled and, without you, that wouldn’t be possible. We hope that those of you who didn’t win this time will come back and have another go next year.

The Douglas Bader Foundation is very grateful as always to our loyal and generous sponsors; Monarch Airlines, the Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort. Also to John Southwick, who founded the competition in 1987 and has been running it ever since. He, ably assisted by his partner, Pat, has worked tirelessly and The BADER CUP is now firmly established in the golfers’ calendar as Europe’s largest, national mixed golf tournament.

Please click HERE to go straight to The BADER CUP Regional Finals Results Page where you will be able to download the Regional Final Results in full.

* For more information about the Tournament please click on the link to go to the The BADER CUP Website *

One of the individual gold Olympic stamps

Instead, a series of six first-class stamps featuring every medallist will be produced after the Games finish on September 9.

A post box in each gold medallist’s home town will also be painted gold, as has been the case with members of Team GB. Royal Mail has also provided a £200,000 prize fund to be divided up equally between the gold medallists of Paralympics GB.

In a statement on their website, the BPA said: “Royal Mail’s special stamps and gold post boxes to celebrate Team GB’s gold medals have prompted questions on whether there are also plans to celebrate ParalympicsGB’s gold medals.

“The BPA have been working closely with the Royal Mail and are very pleased with the final plans.”

The BPA said it wanted to make sure British Paralympians were “recognised for their fantastic achievements” and noted that the stamp honour was a first in the history of the Paralympics.

The association said the plans were not the same as for Team GB because it was expecting a “similarly world-class level of performance” as in Beijing four years ago, when ParalympicsGB won 42 gold medals.

The BPA added: “As a result, it is logistically and practically impossible for Royal Mail to produce an individual stamp for every one of the gold medallists for ParalympicsGB.”

The Royal Mail had attracted criticism for the move, with some taking to Twitter to voice their displeasure.

Michael Moran wrote: “Royal Mail won’t be extending the privilege of an individual stamp to Paralympic gold medallists. Poor show.”

Royal Mail said it was issuing a set of stamps on August 29 to mark the start of the Paralympic Games and featured Paralympic sports on stamps issued in the run-up to London 2012.

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We’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Is it, as Michael Moran writes, a “poor show”? Is it unfair on Paralympians or simply practical? Do get in touch with your views.

BADER BRAVES OLD BUCKENHAM YOUNG AVIATORS DAY POSTPONED

Word has just been received from Old Buckenham Aero Club that due to “operational difficulties” the Young Aviators Day scheduled for 25^th August 2012 has had to be postponed.

Director of Operations, Keith Delderfield said that although everyone was disappointed at the postponement he fully understood the reasoning behind the decision and agreed that it was the right action to take at this stage. “The management at Old Buckenham are facing difficulties in guaranteeing availability of sufficient aircraft of the type needed to meet the requirement of the day and at this juncture there is little alternative other than to postpone” Keith said. He went on “A decision regarding a suitable alternative date cannot be reached until September so it seems that our 2012 event in Norfolk will have to be held in spring 2013 when it will form part of the 30^th Anniversary celebrations of the charity”

An announcement will be made on our website as soon as possible.

The Regional Finals for the prestigious BADER CUP, a mixed Greensome Stableford Competition, are being played and we’ve just received the first 3 results from Market Rasen Golf Club in Lincolnshire, which was played on the 30th July, Darlington Golf Club in Durham, played on the 31st July and Pike Hill Golf Club in York which followed swiftly on the 1st August.

Many congratulations to the winners: Miss M Willerton and Mr. I Elsome (Normanby Hall) who won at Market Rasen with 42 points, Julie Armitage and Neil Raine (Boldon) who won at Darlington also with 42 points and Helen Jacques and Tony Shrivell (Lightcliffe) who won at Pike Hills with 44 points.

The 3 winning couples will go on to play at the Grand Finals in Portugal, which will take place between the 4th – 8th November. They will fly there on Monarch Airlines and enjoy the wonderful facilities of the Tivoli Lagos Hotel while they’re not battling it out on the beautiful Lagos and Praia Courses at Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort. Definitely worth winning for! Details of the other results will be published as we receive them so keep checking in to see who will be joining them there.

Our congratulations and thanks to all who took part and to all participating Golf Clubs. Each year The BADER CUP raises a considerable amount to help the Douglas Bader Foundation to continue its valuable work on behalf of amputees and other disabled and, without you, that wouldn’t be possible. We hope that those of you who didn’t win this time will come back and have another go next year.

Very grateful thanks as always to our loyal and generous sponsors; Monarch Airlines, the Tivoli Lagos Hotel and the Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort. Also to John Southwick, who founded the competition in 1987 and has been running it ever since. He, ably assisted by his partner, Pat, has worked tirelessly and The BADER CUP is now firmly established in the golfers’ calendar as Europe’s largest, national mixed golf tournament.

Please click HERE to go straight to The BADER CUP Regional Finals Results Page where you will be able to download the Regional Final Results in full.

* For more information about the Tournament please click on the link to go to the The BADER CUP Website *

Demand for the “Who Was Douglas Bader Day” at Tangmere Military Aviation Museum on Saturday 11^th August has been overwhelming and is now completely oversubscribed.

Director of Operations for DBF, Keith Delderfield, said “ to be honest I have been taken aback by the interest shown by so many youngsters. The idea of having an “information day” was the concept of our friends at the museum and together we hatched a plan for such an event last year. It is good to know that the Bader story still arouses such interest and continues to be such an inspiration to the disabled community throughout the UK”.

Negotiations are taking place in an attempt to arrange a second event later in the year to accommodate all those disappointed this time round – WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FURTHER INFO!!

We have published an article about this disorder previously on the Limb Loss Information Centre (LLIC) Website but have yet to hear from anyone actually suffering with it.

Here’s what Diana says:

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‘ The Health page of The Sun is urgently looking for someone who suffers from Body Integrity Identity Disorder. This will be a sympathetic look at what is a little-known and misunderstood condition. I am happy to let you check the copy and we will pay you for taking part. Please could you email me asap at dianaappleyard@aol.com and we can talk through what the article involves. Very happy to mention any support organisations.’

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SO – if you or someone you know suffers from Body Integrity Identity Disorder and would like to help Diana and, perhaps, help to raise awareness of this difficult condition, please contact her as quickly as possible.

Milan’s Nomination Story

Milan’s story is one of courage and determination. He was born with “anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery”, a rare congenital heart defect which results in the left side of the heart receiving “oxygen-poor” blood instead of the usual “oxygen-rich” blood. This lack of oxygen causes the heart muscle to die and leads to heart attacks. By his fourth month of life Milan had undergone two open heart operations with a third when he was 5 years old. Despite suffering fatigue and chest pains he has always been determined, without complaining, to live the same normal, fully active life as his identical able-bodied twin. His main sports include running, cycling, tennis, hockey (in which he represented Ealing in the London Youth Games 2005) and karate, gaining brown belt status. A heart attack, at the age of 17, necessitated further heart surgery (23 hours), as a complication of which, Milan’s right lower leg “died”. Undaunted by this event, Milan made the brave decision to amputate (2011). He is determined to return to his main sports using prostheses, to raise money for the hospitals that have treated him and to help and inspire other youngsters who have lost limbs. To start his fundraising he is to run a half marathon (faster than his twin) and cycle from London to Brighton. Milan’s resilience to adversity, resolve to live life to the full and his strength of mind to overcome obstacles and to help others is a true inspiration to all who meet him.

Milan Novakovic with the Olympic Torch pictured with Robert Pascall, Trustee of the Douglas Bader Foundation

Milan is seen with DBF Trustee Robert Pascall and the Flame at The Bollo in Chiswick where customers made a donation to have their photograph taken with Milan and the flame. Milan is supporting DBF becoming a member of Team Bader Cycling and will attend other DBF activities and Events in 2012/13.

We’ve just received the following message from David Harris at the Gwennili Trust. I should imagine that this last minute opportunity will get snapped up very quickly so, if you’re interested in taking it up, please contact Mr. Harris promptly on the telephone number given below to avoid disappointment.

Dear Sailor

As a result of a late cancellation we are able to offer, at very short notice, the opportunity for a disabled but ambulant sailor to join a 5 day cruise on the conventional yacht, Brightside.

• Dates:                                  Fri 10 to Wed 15 August
• Embarking/disembarking:   Gosport
• Destination:                        dependant on the weather and ability of the crew
• Cost:                                    £15 per day contribution to running costs paid to the Gwennili Trust plus £10 per day for victuals in cash to the skipper - total £125
• Previous experience:           not necessary

If you are interested please contact me as soon as possible.    Also, if you don’t want to receive messages like this from the Gwennili Trust any more, let me know.

Best wishes

David Harris

Administrator

Gwennili Trust

01488 658330

Poland's Natalya Partyka

By the decisive seventh game of her come-from-behind 4-3 victory, Partyka had won over most of the neutral fans in attendance too.

It was no surprise to see fans clad in Union Jack face paint or Brazilian T-shirts get behind Partyka because the 23-year-old has one of the most remarkable stories of any Olympian. Partyka, who was born without a right hand and forearm, is one of only two athletes who will compete at both the Olympics and Paralympics this year.

The story of South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius has gotten more publicity because the idea of a double amputee sprinter is so improbable, but Partyka’s path to London is also compelling.

In an interview with MSNBC this month, Partyka said she was 7 years old when she first began following 11-year-old sister Sandra to the table tennis hall in their native Gdansk, Poland. Partyka’s primary goal at that point was merely to get good enough to beat her older sister. When she finally did win, it wasn’t only her sister she could defeat.

At age 11, Partyka represented Poland at the 2000 Paralympics, becoming the youngest player in any sport to compete. At age 15, she won a gold medal in the singles at the 2004 Paralympics and a silver in the team event. And at age 19, she won gold again in the 2008 Paraylmpics and also made her Olympic debut in Beijing.

The only impact Partyka’s disability has on her table tennis game is her serve. Whereas other players begin their serve by tossing the ball with their off hand, she has learned to do the same by cradling the ball in the crook of her right elbow.

Besides that, there is no indication she is competing with just one arm. Partyka plays with grace and power and has risen all the way to No. 68 in the world.

It’s unlikely Partyka will be much of a threat to medal either in the individual competition or the team competition because the top players from Asia are simply too strong, but it’s a great accomplishment that she has made it to London at all. And rest assured that whenever she competes, she’ll have the crowd on her side.

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AND more on the inspirational Natalya Partyka:

London: Of all the success stories at the London Olympics 2012, one stands out as an inspiration for millions battling physical disability. Table tennis player Natalia Partyka of Poland, who was born without an arm, has won hearts at both the Paralympic and the open games for her resilience and grit.

Partyka, 23, reached the last 32 of the Olympic women’s singles event beating Denmark’s Mie Skov 4-3 but she lost to Li Jie of the Netherlands during their match on Sunday.

When Partyka prepares to serve you realise just how impressive she is. She was born without a right forearm and has to carefully balance the ball in the folds of skin at the end of her elbow before dropping it on to her swishing bat.

She is one of only two people to compete in both the Olympics and its Paralympic cousin this year, the other being South African blade runner Oscar Pistorius.

Natalya Partyka

“For me, it (disability) is nothing,” she told reporters after losing her third round match to Netherlands’ Jie Li. “I am playing the same lines as the others. I am doing the same exercises.

“We have the same goals and the same dreams and I can play like them. I can serve and don’t have any problems.

“I get a bit bored about being asked about disability all the time.” She is happy, however, if her achievements act as an inspiration to others. “Maybe someone will see me and realise that their own disability is not the end of the world,” she said. “Maybe someone will look at me and think they can achieve something bigger than they thought. Maybe sometimes you have to work a little bit harder if you really want to do something. If I’m an inspiration I can’t complain.”

Her individual Olympic campaign was ended when she gave away a two-game lead to lose 4-2 but she still has the team event to come and then she must defend the Paralympic title she won four years ago in Beijing.

“When I play here in the Paralympic Games I probably will be at an advantage, having played here already,” she added. “But everybody else will get the chance to practice here first, so they’ll be well prepared.”

The South African sprinter will be the first double-amputee athlete to compete at any Olympics when he runs in the 400 meters in London, and his efforts to qualify for the games have rarely been out of the headlines over the last few years.

“I woke up this morning knowing I was traveling on the day of the opening ceremony and felt a mixture of pride, happiness and anticipation,” Pistorius wrote in an email to The Associated Press after arriving from his training camp in northern Italy.

Pistorius had to fight legal battles just for the right to qualify on his carbon fiber blades, which some argue give him an unfair advantage.

The 25-year-old South African was cleared to compete against able-bodied athletes in 2008 after taking his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports. He still thought he’d miss out on the London Games despite running two Olympic qualifying times over the past 12 months, as he had come up short of the South Africa’s own strict criteria. But South African officials made a last-minute turnaround just weeks before the games, picking him to compete in the individual event as well as the 4×400 relay.

“This feels like a long time coming and I am ready!” Pistorius wrote. “This is going to be, I hope, an incredible few weeks of my life.”

Pistorius was in contention to be South Africa’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium later Friday, but 800 meter world silver medalist and former world champion Caster Semenya was chosen instead.

Pistorius said he still “couldn’t wait” to meet up with his South African teammates and was “really excited” to attend the opening ceremony.

Pistorius’ first race is in the 400 heats on Aug. 4. He is hoping to earn a place in the semifinals at the London Games having made the semis at last year’s world championships in South Korea, where he also made history as the first amputee athlete at the worlds.

He will defend his 100, 200 and 400 titles at the Aug. 29-Sept. 9 Paralympics.