My name is Luke Smith, I  am 17 years old. I was born in East Leake, Leicestershire where I still live with my family.

I left school (Harry Carlton in East Leake) in July 2009, and, as I’ve always loved sport, decided to take a BTec National Diploma in Sport at South Nottinghamshire College (SNC) in West Bridgford where I have a place on the Athlete Performance Programme for Rugby.

Last year I received a ‘V Award for over 150 hours volunteer work for Balls to Poverty and I am also a volunteer at Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People in Loughborough, where I spend time interacting with the older children and young people.  At the end of January, I will be trained to help out in the hydrotherapy pool.

I have been a keen rugby player since I was 6.   I first played for East Leake mini’s team, but, after a couple of seasons,

 the ‘minis’ was disbanded.  I then played for Syston RFC and Loughborough RFC. Unfortunately the Loughborough U16’s (my age group at that time) disbanded and so I joined Belgrave RFC ( I was U17’s Captain last year ) and now  play for Belgrave RFC Seniors,

This is the second year that I have been fortunate enough to be selected, along with 33 other Sports students, to take part in the Balls to Poverty 2011 charity tour to South Africa, which will be taking place in April.  I do consider myself very fortunate and it is a great honour to be asked to take part in this tour.

Whilst in South Africa the SNC students, will be providing coaching sessions to children aged 3 to 14 years in 8 different townships, along with distributing footballs, rugby balls, playing kits and equipment.  By encouraging children to take part in sport and to pass on the skills they learn to other children in their community, we hope it will deter them from becoming involved in crime.  We will also be helping to redecorate a school in one of the townships that we will be visiting, as well as taking part in rugby tournaments at some South African colleges to raise the profile of the ‘Balls to Poverty’ charity.

On return from South Africa, we will be going to schools in the Inner city areas of  Nottingham (as we did last year) to coach the children and , hopefully, help give them an enjoyable challenge and something to have fun striving for.

We need funds to purchase the balls and equipment (it all costs alot!), so, I’d really be grateful for any donation you can give (no matter how small) to help us buy the kit we need.

Sincere thanks

Luke Smith