Each year hundreds of people with disabilities of all kinds benefit from the work of the Tennis Foundation in promoting and providing access to the great sport of tennis.

As a coach at the North East Visually Impaired Tennis Club and a Disability Tennis Network Activator in the North East I am proud to play my own small part in this work.

As a tennis player with a disability myself (I have a visual impairment and am registered as blind) I have benefited greatly from participating in a sport. For a person with a disability, it can be a profoundly liberating experience to compete on a level playing field. As well as improvements to physical and mental health there is a deep joy and great social benefits in being immersed in a culture of like minded and supportive people.

As a coach delivering activities across the whole ability spectrum it has been my privilege to be able to share some of these benefits with others and I am keen to share them with as many others as possible.

So this year, I will be participating in the Simply Health Great North Run with a team from the Tennis Foundation to raise funds and awareness to help do just this.

It has taken many months of fairly intensive training to go from an occasional jog around the park to starting to push up distance and endurance past the 10 K mark and gradually up towards the magic 21 K (the 13 miles of the half marathon) and even now, with just a few weeks to go, it remains an intimidating goal!

On Sunday the 9th of September at around 11 AM, we will set off from the Hancock Museum in Newcastle, proceed towards the river and cross the Tyne Bridge and then (hopefully) proceed the remaining 12 miles along the coast to the beach at South Shields having been running for (possibly optimistic!) between two and a half and three hours to the finish line, where someone will hopefully provide me with a sit down and a stiff drink!

Please help support this great cause by donating whatever you can and sharing this just giving page with as many people as possible!