Active Summer Fun: 'Sport opened up a whole new world to me'
A new participation campaign created by the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) and National Disability Sport Organisations (NDSOs) is encouraging more disabled people to find out and play out over summer. Active Summer Fun -#ActiveSummerFun on social media - is an exciting new campaign that aims to support more disabled people to find ways to be active during the warmer months.
This summer we will be hearing from various disabled people, who lead active lifestyles in all sorts of ways. We hear how they are expecting the next few months to be very busy!
Today handcyclist and archer Lee Patmore talks to us. He discusses how he uses sport to both relax and unleash his competitive side.
Lee’s Active Summer Fun:
I took up archery in April 2013, and then handcycling just three-and-a-half months ago.
My main sport is probably the handcycling. I want to get competitive, although archery is my first love. It got me up-and-running again after being diagnosed with a pain syndrome, though I won’t qualify to be classified as a Para-archer.
Because of my impairment I had started playing other sports in the past but always reached the stage where I just couldn’t manage it anymore. A good example is indoor and outdoor rock climbing – I enjoyed it but it became too painful, I was too restricted in my movements.
Other sports involved carrying equipment or darting around, both of which would aggravate my condition. But archery is something I’ve always enjoyed – I used to go as a child to a holiday camp in Devon and would have a go at archery, and I really liked it.
So I took it up again a couple of years ago, at a point when I was walking more freely.
But as a non-disabled archer you have to walk to and from the target all the time, and as my disability developed, it became just a fact that I would only be able to carry on playing if I started to use a wheelchair.
I have got some degenerative discs in my spine, plus a lower back problem. I also have a currently unexplained numbness down the left of my body alongside ME and fibromyalgia, which affects my central nervous system.
I am in pain 24/7 and have to convince myself to get out of bed in the morning. But as soon as I have my bow in my arms and I reach down for my arrow, that is it. No matter what has happened in my day – gone. The whole world and its troubles stop for that moment when I pick up the arrow, load it onto my bow then shoot it. The whole world stops.
I have tried things like meditation and so on before, but sport beats it. It is just so relaxing and the pain almost disappears for a second. It’s very hard to explain.
Archery is nice and relaxing, but handcycling has that competitive edge. I can push myself hard and try and chase down somebody. It’s the competitive aspect of my personality, whereas archery is my relaxing hobby.
I joined the Royal Navy when I was 21 and before that I couldn’t drive, so everywhere I went was via my mountain bike. I used to go out at weekends and do a 50 mile ride just for fun. It was something I had always done, and someone recently let me try out a handcycle and I just loved it.
Four months ago I spoke to someone who was an injured serviceman, who told me about handcycling and wheelchair racing as two very enjoyable competitive sports.
A few weeks after that Help for Heroes Band of Brothers emailed me telling me that they were putting on a ride in a month’s time. There was a 10 mile and a 56 mile, and although I had only been using a handcycle for a while I chose the right on for me – the 56 miles! I just knew I could do it and it would push me to my limits. I trained with a group of guys, then in the race I finished in five hours and 35 minutes.
I want to compete in the Palace to Palace ride in September, Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle, plus more events for Help for Heroes.
For me, sport gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. I'm now a personal trainer, but before that the reason I used to get out of my bed, despite how I was feeling, was because I set myself the target of going to the gym that day, or do some other physical activity.
Sport opened up a whole new world to me. It is good for beating depression, and if you can find a sport that you enjoy it will help you. Exercise does a lot for the soul in a person. You just have to find the right sport for you.
You can find out more about Active Summer Fun. Find out and play out this summer. WheelPower provides opportunities, facilities and equipment to enable wheelchair users to participate in sport and lead healthy active lives.
