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Lee from Slated Row, Milton Keynes

I am Lee Mcbride I am 18 years old. I am from Milton Keynes.

My journey began at Slated Row School, through P.E lessons. As I enjoyed P.E I started to do playground leading then as I got older, I wanted to get involved in sports leadership.

As I enjoyed PE my PE teacher Lesley noticed how passionate I was and helped me to get into sports leadership.

I developed my interest and skills by doing different events i.e. helping at special needs festivals, being a playground leader at lunchtime to get more children active, helping at our school on sports day. I helped a few times at the local Ability Games that my teacher organised. First, I helped a child who was nervous but the last time I went I was running an activity on my own. I also volunteered at two Dare to Believe Festivals too which were organised by Youth Sport Trust.  

At school my mate and I saw the Girls Active club and we decided to start a Boys Active, we aimed this at boys who aren't active and invited them along. They really liked it and others wanted to join so we had sporty students helping the less active ones. We played Table tennis, did boxercise, and sometimes played badminton. It was really successful until Covid stopped it. 

I still see myself in the future doing sports and helping people keep active. 

Rhea from Slated Row, Milton Keynes

Hi l am Rhea, I am 18 years-old and l live in Milton Keynes. 

When l was 13 years-old l came into Slated Row School and l first started cheerleading when l was 13 years old also.

I started competing at competitions in Bournemouth, although for my first competition I was really nervous but after a few years l got used to it, in the end it was quite fun. 

At the start of cheerleading l was a little bit shy and tried hard not to be but l couldn’t do it, so l tried again, and it didn’t work so I thought l would give up. But my mind was telling me not to give up. So, l practised and practised on my own then l eventually did it, l was so proud of myself.

At 12 years old l was watching cheerleading videos and l wanted to become a cheerleader one day and now it’s happening, I have been there five years now and sometimes get asked to lead the class.

I have always liked watching YouTube fitness videos and l wanted to become a Girls Active leader one day and now my dreams have come true. I wanted to show how successful I could be in life and be supportive in Girls Active and encourage my friends to be motivated and to help them out and be a team member. In cheerleading we work as a whole team and we can get through everything together and l like helping them push themselves out of their comfort zone and help them to be the best.

These are my best skills: I do like to help them if they are in trouble and l love helping kids. 

l aspire to continue in Girls Active because it gets me moving and being there for my friends, and I like being able to do things to overcome fears. 

l aspired to make movies to be a leader because l liked to overcome my fears of being in front of cameras. My first time of being on camera was in You’ve Been Framed when l was 3 years old and I embarrassed myself when l fell off my chair, but it was funny.

I aspire to be a swim coach and gymnastics coach for children. I also like designing bedrooms and parties, I also like photography. But mainly I would like to help children with special needs at a school and have my own inspirational YouTube channel.

Lewis from Budmouth Academy in Weymouth

My name is Lewis, I’m 13 and I’m from Kent originally, but I now live in Weymouth in Dorset. I started playing and enjoying sport at a very young age, 9 or 10. 

Hockey and gymnastics grabbed my attention initially and although I still enjoy gymnastics, I stopped playing hockey after only about a year. Gymnastics keeps me flexible and happy and I was keen to join a club after we moved to Weymouth. I’ve met lots of friends, two in particular who like me have an autistic spectrum condition. My gymnastics instructor is inspiring as he shows no fear when demonstrating a new technique for specific equipment. This fills us with confidence. My favourite piece of equipment to work with is the rings.

I also really enjoy judo and have come to realise that these sports are not about humiliating people, but learning and practising new techniques and skills and just having a go. I am currently looking forward to competing for my next belt, which is an incentive for me to practise and succeed in judo. There is something quite comforting and grounding about rolling around on the floor and stretching, in judo and gymnastics, especially for someone with an ASC.

I have also recently taken up sailing as Weymouth is the perfect place with excellent facilities in this sport. It is very calming being out on the water as life can get a bit stressful sometimes for someone with ASC. Sailing requires full concentration, as it is quite hard changing sides and avoiding the boom! This makes it possible, just for a while, to forget the annoying things in life, such as a busy week at school or too much homework. When you are out sailing you do also have time to enjoy the view. I am looking forward to being able to take someone out on the water and teach them to sail and help them to stay focussed and concentrate. I would eventually like to become an instructor in sailing.

Kitana from Budmouth Academy in Weymouth

I am Kitana McCann, I am 16 years old and I am from Weymouth. I have cerebral palsy which affects the right-hand side of my body.  My brain isn't good at communicating with my right-hand side, so for example my right hand will only do things if I concentrate on making it work.  

Around the age of 4-5 years old my mum got me into swimming lessons to help me swim and because it is good for my coordination and helps get my whole body working.  Since then I started to get into more and more sports and being active, getting older and trying new sports. 

While I was getting older and enjoying being active trying new sports at school my teachers started realising that I would try and have a go at different sports and they started inviting me to go to events like leadership and being an ambassador. When going to these events it makes me happy to see other children learning and I enjoy meeting new people.  Outside of school I am part of a swimming club and I swim with younger people and I talk to them about their personal life and I feel like an older sister, knowing that they can talk to me, I help them out, they help me out, like encouraging each other during competitions. 

In the future I would like to continue with my swimming.  I am classified as a para swimmer and would love to compete at a national level.  I am also waiting to start a performing arts course at college as I would also love to be on stage.