As part of our Don’t Quit, Do It campaign, aimed at giving people with physical disabilities access to sport, we’re proud to support the Hampshire Harriers wheelchair basketball team.
Based in Weston, Hampshire, the Harriers were founded in the early 1980s. Their founder, Tony Marsh, set the club up for his nephew, who suffered from muscular dystrophy. Initially set up for a three month trial period, the club is still going strong more than 30 years later.
Today the club fields three teams, who play in the GBWBA (Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Association) with 14 matches per season, all across the UK. Registered as a charity, the club is mostly self-funding and its members regularly take part in fundraising activities.
As well as supplying the Harriers with equipment and access to matchday staff, our support is aimed at helping to raise the regional and national profile of wheelchair basketball. Wheelchair basketball, like many disability sports, is all-inclusive and can be played by anyone, regardless of disability. The Harriers actively encourage everyone to participate, allowing friends and families to compete together.
We launched our Don’t Quit, Do It campaign to increase participation in disability sports by highlighting the many benefits of taking part, and by making it easier for people to access and get involved with their local clubs.
Although there are 9.4 million people living with disabilities in the UK, only 1 in 6 of them regularly takes part in sport of any kind. We hope that, through our campaign and sponsorship of clubs like the Harriers, we can make a real difference to physically disabled people across the country. Sport can be an important part of the rehabilitation process after a life-changing injury, developing independence, social integration and general well-being.
If you, or someone you know, would like to get involved with the Hampshire Harriers visit their page on Facebook and get stuck in!
You can also find out more about Irwin Mitchell’s Don’t Quit, Do It campaign here.
