Freya from England's Wheelchair Rugby 7s

It’s incredibly inclusive, and just like running rugby, there’s a position for everyone! There’s a huge family feel to playing in the teams and being a part of the clubs.

Just give it a go - it might just change your life!

It's always important to have more females playing sport, especially putting pressure on the boys for spots in the squad! But more importantly, raising the profile of the sport and its inclusive nature; having more females playing will encourage even more. In the future, even have a women's international side which would be incredible for the sport. However, I think it's really positive to have mixed squads.

Home is my favourite place to be, somewhere I can close the door and be in my safe space, with my favourite person and 4-legged best friend. So when the government announced “stay home, stay safe”, I was a big fan!

I’ve not left my house since 15th March and spent the pre-lockdown weekend how I know best, with a Basketball game, Rugby training and a venture to Hull for a Rugby away game.

With all sport now on hold, this will be my first summer without an international tournament in 7 years and I’d be lying if I said it was easy to continue training at home. Part of me has enjoyed the break for the first time in a long time, however there’s a much bigger part of me that is so ready to hear my coach yell “baseline” and be back with my teammates. Sport is so, so much more than just training to keep fit!

As schools closed, the decision was made by the charity I work for to temporarily close too. Like the rest of the country, I’m trying to keep busy, with those niggling DIY jobs I’ve never had time for, soaking in the sunshine in the garden, playing with the dog and learning sign language, awkward zoom quiz nights and just trying to embrace this time as much as possible.

I’ve tried to maintain exercising at home and a neighbour sourced some bricks for me so we could fashion some ‘rollers’. By placing my sports chair on top, I can still get some sort of cardio training. One of my friends released a whole series of home wheelchair workouts, so big shoutout to Ella for adding some strength training into my routine!

An old friend phoned during the first week of lockdown for help with a plan to get shopping and essential items to our community. With some supermarket delivery times being lengthy, he’d teamed up with a local greengrocer and could offer next day delivery of essentials to our community. We are in our 14th week and have reached over 140 homes! It’s kept me busy through lockdown. The feedback we’ve had, from some of the people we are helping has been overwhelming and it definitely helps power through some of those harder days.

Above all, I think I share the same two views as many others during this time - I cannot wait to hug my family again, and want to say a huge thank you to the NHS and keyworkers for keeping us safe!

Sport has a huge impact on your physical and mental wellbeing, and I believe sport should be accessible for all, whether you want to compete at the highest level or just get active with your friends. Without sport I don’t know what I would be doing today, it has enabled me to go to University, secure a dream job, travel the world and compete for my country. Before sport, I was Freya in the wheelchair, when I play sport, I’m just Freya.

I've been with the Rugby 7s squad since 2018, the sponsors of a test match against France were keen to see more females playing the sport, I answered an advert and have managed to secure my spot in the squad ever since. It's an absolute dream to be playing rugby again, I wish 10-year-old me could see my England kit too! My role in the squad is Hooker, so front of the scrum. I need quick reactions for when the ball is placed, and a lot of trust in my teammates playing loose and tight head prop, as ultimately, they're giving me all the forward momentum to give me the best chance possible to secure the ball.

I was recently asked to be a part of a very exciting project by Mark Massey, a photographer who wants to challenge and change perceptions and stereotypes around an being an Essex Girl, and what this means for young girls growing up in Essex in the shadow of dictionary definitions like, “a young working-class woman from the Essex area, typically considered as being unintelligent, materialistic and devoid of taste.”

I was very keen to take part as an Essex girl! I’m incredibly proud to be from here and honoured to be redefining what it means to be an ‘Essex Girl’. I am proud to be from Essex and nothing makes me feel more at home than seeing the “Welcome to Essex sign” on the M25 after being away with work or sport.

I’ve encountered a lot of negative preconceptions when I tell people where I’m from. The stereotypes around being an Essex girl means people assume I’m unintelligent, vain and naïve. Being disabled too, sometimes it just feels like I don’t have a chance and it’s easier to succumb to the stereotypes. I don’t think people realise how much courage it takes to stand out from what everyone else thinks you are or should be. To speak up, challenge and even help change people’s viewpoints on what a female from Essex should be like – because what is an Essex girl?

For every girl who hears the disappointed tone and the pointed looks when they tell people where they’re from and for every girl who hears the follow up “shut-uppp!” when they mention their Essex hometown – we can change this! Even if you feel like you have traits that are similar to the stereotypes people talk about, just remember you are so much more than that too!

Being from Essex doesn’t define us, because Essex itself isn’t defined by looks or the stereotypical traits it gets a name for. It’s a community of females from all walks of like. Empowering each other, working alongside each other and rooting for each other because of where we’re all from, NOT in spite of it. Just like a football fan supporting their local teams in the big leagues, we’re all supporting each other because we want to see people from our hometown do well.

I’m from sunny Saafend-on-Sea where we aren’t post, don’t say our Ts, never owned a pair of white stilettos and have most certainly not danced around a handbag (not that there’s anything wrong with any of this)– but I am a proud Essex Girl!

Winning the Essex Sports Personality of the Year award in 2019 was honestly one of the highlights of my career so far. I’m incredibly proud to hold the title, especially as a disabled athlete to be the overall winner.

In 2013 I first won Essex Disabled Sports Personality of the Year award after making my debut with the U18, U25 and senior GB Women’s Wheelchair Basketball squads. It was an absolute whirlwind and I was up against some very tough competition. It was the first time I’d won a big award and it was just the motivation I needed to power me through the next few years of my career.

In 2018 I won Disabled Sports Personality again after a successful first season with the England Rugby 7s team and winning bronze with the GB Women’s Para Ice Hockey squad at the World cup. Unfortunately, the awards night came at a very difficult time for our family as my Grandmother had passed away the day before, and the funeral was the day after, so the actual awards night was bang in the middle. Throughout my career, my highest achievements have come alongside some of my biggest adversities, I think that’s what helps me keep pushing and stay motivated. It helps highlight; when you feel like quitting, remember why you started.

In 2019, after one of the hardest 12 months of my life so far, I was lifted once again by the Active Essex Sports awards, this time being nominated for overall Sports Personality of the Year, after a successful season with the England 7s lads, bringing Bronze home from the U25 basketball world championships in Thailand and my work off court with Panathlon Challenge. The awards were down to a public vote and the support and response I received was overwhelming. I was so nervous on the night and it was the last award announced. I was up against two incredible athletes and was completely speechless when they announced my name. To know your local community is behind you is a powerful feeling!

The awards this year are celebrating Essex Activity Heroes; individuals or organisations that have helped inspire and keep people active during these difficult times. The real MVPs, at a time where physical activity and community have been so pertinent to our mental wellbeing!

For me, the awards this year are also special because I get to help announce them! To come from a position of being overwhelmed when I was nominated, to being asked to announce, it’s quite surreal to be on the other side. I’m grateful to be in a position to boost others like these awards once (and continue to) boosted me.

The festive season is my favourite time of year, great food, time with the family and finding the perfect present to light up someone’s eyes!

Like most of 2020 this year will be different, but thinking back, I don’t think I’ve had two Christmases the same in a long time. One year we had a basketball training camp that ran over most of the festive period, or I’d often work at the Taxi rank, as Christmas day and the lead up to it is the busiest time of the year. My mum is a midwife and works over Christmas, so we celebrate all together a few days before to exchange gifts and spend time together, but with too many households, gathering this year wont be the same.

Thinking back on Christmas as a child and how magical it can be, reminds me of one of my all time favourite presents. One year my grandparents got me my first ever proper bike! As the youngest to 2 brothers and a sister, it was huge for me to have a grown up bike like they’ve had. I remember them wheeling it in from the hallway and what was so perfect about it, was the fact it was blue (having tried for many years with bright pink things and girly dresses) It was a proper bike, in my favourite colour and I honestly rode that bike everyday until I was physically unable to ride a bike anymore. So when I think of Christmas and giving gifts, I try to remember how 9 year old Freya felt that day, with every gift I give.

I'm always far more excited to give gifts than to receive, seeing their face when they open it, but keeping what's inside a secret until they've opened it feels like hardest thing in the world! I love getting gifts that people don’t know they need or tickets as something to look forward to in the new year and of course the silly annual presents that just become tradition! I don’t know how it started, but every year I get my sister-in-law carpet shaker and my Nan will always make sure we have silly or traditional presents, and gets t-towels and sponges and tiny things that remind her of us when she saw them, those are the presents we’ll treasure the most. One year I got my niece her first basketball hoop, or the hip flask I got engraved for my step-dad the year of mum's wedding in Greece (his present this year is the one I’m most excited about). The best has to be mum’s present last Christmas, Mamma Mia the party at the O2, the treat for my mum, that I didn't know we both needed, perfect company, great music and of course the obligatory sing-a-long in the car home!

It’s great to be able to celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, on the first day of Hanukkah I put up the Menorah and light the first candle, visit and place a stone down for my grandparents, (In the Jewish religion you don’t give flowers at the graveside you place a stone. I pick one up from the places I’ve travelled to, there’s stones from Israel, Texas, Spain, Vienna, Czech republic, all over!) as there’s been no sport this year and we’ve not been able to travel too far, I’ve got one from a beach in Norfolk.

Although this year will be strange, and in some cases virtual, we can still be with our loved ones, decorate the house, give that perfect gift and eat a ton of great food. I’ll still leave the Christmas shopping until the absolute last minute, fill the dog’s stocking (like he has any idea whats going on) my partner will make a cracking roast, and BBC will show Cars! There’s still plenty we can do that make you feel close to your family and traditions, those little things, that get you all giddy and festive this time of year.

In 2012, I had the opportunity to work with the Muscular Dystrophy campaign to bring physio and rehabilitation into gyms as well as calling for better access to sports facilities. Taking this to parliament meant, in many cases now, physiotherapy and rehabilitation takes place in gyms and fitness environments. This helps to ensure from day one, disability isn’t seen as a barrier to accessing physical activity.

Despite the amazing success of the London and Rio Paralympics we still have a long, long way to go for fair, and equal access to sport, regardless of ability or gender. I saw a stat the other day that said “More sports clubs have a bar, than have disabled facilities, and only 29% have a bar!” How can people with disabilities get the same equal access to the physical, mental, and social benefits from sport and physical activity, if they can’t even get in the door? Although the effects of Covid have been incredibly devastating, there’s small wins that we have gained from this “new normal”; there’s far more content out there for home fitness as nobody has been able to access a gym or fitness centre. This means those who may have found gyms daunting or inaccessible are able to access physical activity in a whole new way, it’s levelled the playing field! We have also seen an increase in accessible home fitness and workouts for those with disabilities, an area that’s been neglected in the past. I recommend trying Panathlon Challenge’s At Home Games, which use everyday household items to play fun and accessible challenges for children. Ella Beaumont’s Youtube channel is also great and has been my go to with sport on hold during lockdown. With fantastic video content for all abilities and packed full of exercise sessions with or without equipment. At the start of lockdown I was a bit stuck for equipment but she has workouts with brooms and tin cans so everyone can still stay active.

It’s important now, more than ever, to be doing everything we can to stay mentally and physically well, physical activity and sport play such a vital role in that, which is why it’s so important to talk and raise awareness on accessible sport so everybody has an equal opportunity and choice in physical activity and an equal opportunity to get the mental and physical benefits from sport.

I’ve always loved sport. I played rugby from the age of 4, both my brothers played, and my dad was a coach at the club, so I grew up around rugby which was a big influence for me. My progression into sport came from a young age from simple things, like playing in the garden with our neighbour and my brothers. They were older and far better than me, it definitely pushed me.

At primary school I played literally anything on offer. There was no girls football team, so I’d train with the boys. Coach would say “you know I can’t pick you for the team, it’s a boys team…” on the days of selecting the school team, but I didn’t care, I just wanted to play football. Playground football was iconic! I can still feel the pain of a wet sponge ball smack you in the back and you'd eat your packed lunch in 10 seconds to get out on the playground first! Rounders, cricket, basketball I just loved being immersed in anything sport related which has helped set me up well for my career now.

I remember the day my best friend Broghain told me there was a new teacher starting a girl's football team outside of school that we could join. It was such a game changing moment, suddenly we could compete for our school and not just in the playground! In one of our first games, I scored a hat-trick and was subbed off; the crowd was heckling the coaches – I felt like a professional footballer! What’s more is, it felt like a proper match, not just a show game to ‘let the girls play’. That feeling propelled me into the sports career that I have been able to continue and is why I love my job and the work Panathlon Challenge do.

I played rugby and football into secondary school and enjoyed being on the school teams but after being diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, I knew I had to find a different sport. It was never a question that I’d have to stop sport. A chance search on Google led me to Wheelchair Basketball, but It wasn’t until a few years later that I found Wheelchair Rugby 7s and para ice hockey. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have access to find the sports I love and to continue playing sport; becoming disabled wasn’t a barrier for me, but it is for so, so many others which is why it’s so important to talk and raise awareness on accessible sport. Everybody should have an equal opportunity and choice to access physical activity and an equal opportunity to get the mental and physical benefits from sport too.

As restrictions are lifted we finally got the green light for sport to safely return! I feel incredibly privileged to have had my second dose of the vaccine, which came just in time for the season to begin a few weeks back, so I felt safer to return to play.

After so long away, I cannot describe how good it feels to be back on a court and just how grateful I am for all the little things, the feeling of freshly pumped up wheels and new tyres on a sports hall floor, the feeling of catching a perfect pass, the long drive to your favourite game day playlist. I'm just so grateful to be back! The biggest thing I think is also being back with my team, I was a bit emotional when I put my kit on for our first game of the season, it's that sense of belonging again.

One thing that's different from an everyday wheelchair to a sports wheelchair is the strapping. On our sports chairs we use a lot of velcro or click straps to keep us secure to the chair and it helps make the chair more responsive to your body and keeps us safe if we fall out. I don't have any pre-game rituals or routines, but I strap myself into my chair in the exact same order every time whether it's training or a match. So like most of us, the majority of my training over the past year has been in my bedroom or garden and getting in my sports chair has been the same, but that first day back on court after 14 months away, the first time getting back in my sports chair for a game day, I really took that moment in. It was so strange, I've done it a thousand times but it's been such a journey to get back to that point and for it to be safe enough for us to return; the simple act of strapping my feet in and seeing the wooden sports hall floor beneath my footplate, I just felt on top of the world. After the year we've all had, the social benefits of sport and physical activity can't be overlooked, whether it's grass roots or at an elite level, sport is so pertinent to our mental well-being and I'm so grateful it's back!

With Wimbledon, the Olympic and Paralympic games delayed for the first time since World War 2, and most domestic level sport postponed, Covid brought plenty of cancelations last year - if it wasn’t for Tiger King I don’t know what we would have watched! This year, however, has been making up for it; sport has returned with a bang and treated us to a summer packed with sport on our screens.

The America’s cup returning to New Zealand back in March, the Guinness Six Nations, Djokovic doing what he does best with a grand slam at Wimbledon and the men’s football team filling us with the almighty hope, once more, that it might just come home!

And then finally what we’d been waiting for..the Tokyo Olympic games hit our screens, filled our hearts and pulled the nation together. I’m a bit bias but to quote Channel 4’s motto, “thanks for the warm-up”, the Paralympics is what I’ve been waiting for this year! Where the power of sport truly hits home and for two weeks the focus is on the strength and power of disabled people, and what they can do, rather than what they can’t. 

To use ‘unprecedented’ in a sentence not about Covid-19, would be to describe Channel 4’s commitment of coverage of this year’s Paralympic games. In 2012 they had a target of 500 hours across platforms, but this year sees that doubled, with over 1,000 hours of streamed sports from the games, 300 hours of which will be coverage across their tv channels. This is compared to 120 hours on television and 700 hours streamed at the Rio Paralympics.

Coverage of disability sport is so important and has helped create household names of our para-athletes, provided much needed role models for those living with disabilities and helped educate society to be more open minded and accepting to difference. For young children with disabilities to see athletes and sport stars just like them is so important, you can’t be what you don’t see and that starts with coverage of disability sports. I know I grew up wanting to play sport at the highest level thanks to Maggie Alphonsi and Faye White breaking barriers and opening doors for females in rugby and football, so it's great to see commitment placed on the promotion of disability sport for future generations to get inspired and get active. I love watching my friends competing and know one day it will be me, but for the next 2 weeks, my out of office is on and I’ll be screaming at the screen for our Paralympians out in Toyko!

Those that know me, know how much I love talking about my dog Mater. He joined our family in 2018 and over the last two years we have been embarking on a new adventure as we began the process of getting him qualified as a disability assistance dog. We found the incredible charity Support Dogs and set off to an open day like parents hoping to get their child into the best school!

Although Covid delayed his first set of training, in November 2020 Mater set off for Sheffield to stay with the amazing Denise who looked after him while he completed two weeks of training. As restrictions eased and it was safer to do so, in April 2021 Mater headed up for another two weeks and we joined him for the third week.

With lots of hard work he passed his initial assessments with flying colours, and we were able to bring his Jacket home, meaning we could continue to train in restricted environments building his confidence for our final test in a few months’ time.

It was a huge moment the first time he came to a sports centre, and he’s started to come to training too! We’re building him up for a game day but continuing to train hard to build his confidence.

On October 14th we had his big test! The final step in order for us to pass as an official working partnership and signed off as an official assistance dog and…. WE PASSED! Mater absolutely smashed it and we sailed through our final test and are now looking forward to his graduation ceremony in November.

Training through lockdown has been hard with the restrictions due to Covid, however it was amazing to be able to ‘go back out in the world’ after lockdown with Mater by my side.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have Mater by my side, he’s unbelievably smart and I’m unbelievably proud of how far he’s come and so excited for where we’ll adventure to next!