Joining BBS is the first little step in taking giant steps to improve your lifestyle - as aptly explained by BBS President, Sally Gunnell OBE
“Taking up sport whether you are sighted or visually impaired (VI) is the first step to changing your life for the better! People always remember me winning, which is great, but sport is about so much more, like getting yourself fit, meeting and mixing with other athletes, building confidence, being part of a team and, ultimately, realising your own potential. Great for an able-bodied person but even better for a VI person as this means, less isolation more sociability, better health and wellbeing and perhaps best of all an opportunity to shine on a level playing field. After all it is nice to win too and if you are in any doubt about how sport changes your life for the better, ask Bob or Jessica”..
Bob has been winning gold medals and breaking records at Paralympic level for many years. Training as an elite athlete since 1999, Bob is serious about sport and a true ambassador for athletics.
It’s hard to believe now but Bob nearly turned his back on athletics after fading eyesight during his teens resulted in a series of running accidents, causing him to lose confidence and ultimately give up the sport.
It was a chance meeting in 1980 with a Paralympian 1500m winner, at the Holland Paralympics, that inspired Bob to take up running once again.
Bob said; “I was a team member of the Great Britain Paralympic Goalball squad and shared a dormitory with the 1500m gold medallist, who was also blind. He showed me that, despite my blindness, I could still run and I’ve been running ever since.”
Just six months after he donned his running shoes, Bob set his first world record and has since broken 21 further records, won 8 Paralympic gold medals, retains the world record at 1500m and is the first Paralympian to be awarded an MBE for his services to sports for the disabled.
Bob adds; “As an established athlete I try to give back to some of the organisations that have helped me get to where I am today and so do talks about BBS to various schools and clubs, promoting its good work. Without the support from bodies such as British Blind Sport many people would not be able to enjoy the benefits that sport offers”.
Sport loving Jessica Luke, who has a deteriorating sight condition, Retinitis Pigmentosa, was introduced to BBS and goalball whilst on a school holiday in 1998. She enjoyed the experience so much that she couldn’t wait to become a member of BBS and set up her own goalball team – and that’s exactly what she did!
Jessica said; “I was immediately hooked … I really liked it because it’s the only sport where everyone competed at the same level.
With the help of my local VI centre I soon got a team together and we began competing in the BBS run national championships and league. There isn’t a great deal of money in the sport so without the continued support and funding from BBS I don’t think goalball would be able to keep going.”
Jessica’s sporting talent hasn’t gone unnoticed either. Catching the attention of the Great Britain Goalball team selectors Jessica is represented her country, for a third year running, in the 2005 World Youth Championships in Colorado Springs and continues to play internationally.
Jessica is just one of three VI children in the Luke family to benefit from BBS membership with younger brother Joseph, 16, and sister Emily, 13, both participating in various sporting activities including cricket, bowling and athletics.
