While studying at university, I began to have severe mental health difficulties which lead to hospitalisation. It has taken me a long time to get over this and while I do have a long term illness, I am more than capable of coping with it now and I am confident that it will not become a problem again.

Now that I am ready to move forward with my life I would like to go back to university. I have a place at the University of Birmingham to study sport, PE and coaching science. Due to previous attempts to study at university, I am only entitled to 1 year of funding from the student loans company and they have not agreed to extend this due to my circumstances.

At the age of 4, I was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and ADHD. These conditions, especially the Asperger’s, has made it very difficult for me to understand and interact with other people and the world around me. For most of my life, I never took part in anything that involved a lot of people as I found it too hard. In recent years, through starting to play sports, I have finally been able to socialise well and build positive relationships. This is the biggest reason why I love sports so much.

I am a very good teacher. I have recently helped to teach kids to play football and basketball. Most importantly I am good at teaching them to be confident and to believe in themselves which is an extremely important part of any activity. I have also been a part of teaching people to ice skate. I am creative and I have the ability to come up with unique and fun ideas for training. My degree will give me the knowledge and experience I need to become the best coach that I can be.

I am taking this one step at the time, so the current target is the amount required to pay tuition fees, accomodation and living costs for my 2nd year.