Hi, My name is Aaron Blyth-Palk and i run Plymouth Storm Wheelchair Basketball club. The Club has been running now for the past 6 and a half years. The club has given the opportunity to people with disabilities to play a sport and have a social interaction with others that have a disability. The club currently has 14 regular members who attend on a weekly basis, we currently train on a thursday evening between 7-10 at Marjon's university. One of the main struggles that the club has like any club is the running costs that come along with running a club i.e. Training costs, travel expenses, games etc. This year the club is entering 2 teams into the league, 1 in Division 3 and 1 in Division 4 and like anything with expansion there comes the problem with added costs. To give people an idea of costs of what a season costs are the following:

Court Hire for Training: £3,700

Traveling: £2,000

Games £2,000

One of my aims of the club is to make it obtainable for all so that no matter what the background of someone is financially they can attend the club to train and play. To raise money people pay subs and we also do collections at local supermarkets and stores when we are able to. This summer though to try and help raise the funds for this upcoming season the team has set themselves individual challenges which are listed below to be completed between the 1st August and 17th September.

Sammy Browne: Pushing 60 miles, Petru Punga: Pushing 100 miles, Luke Collier: Walking and pushing 250 miles, Matt Rolfe: Pushing and rowing 80 miles, Christine Hill: Pushing 30 miles and swimming 21, miles Jason Wilkes: Swimming 21 miles, Aaron Blyth-Palk: Pushing 50 miles , Johnny Seventeenie: Pushing 80 miles, Ben Cray: Pushing 30 miles, Tommy Gundry: Pushing 50 miles, Phil Kennedy: Pushing and cycling 50 miles, Mike Symmons: Pushing 12 miles, Lachlan Mitchell: Pushing 50 miles, Oscar Knight: Pushing 30 miles

Each person has set themselves a target to push themselves over 38 days. If an individual meets their target and still has days left they won't be stopping there, they will be continuing to see how far they can get. Final targets will be posted on the clubs Facebook page.

For most of the players at the club wheelchair basketball is something that they look forward to on a weekly basis and have a real passion for the sport. The club would like to continue giving people the opportunity to play wheelchair basketball within the community.

If anyone would have the ability to donate and help the team no matter how much then everyone at the club would be deeply grateful. With your kind gesture it allows people the ability to continue participating in something they love.

Kind regards

Aaron Blyth-Palk