Bath Night Walk for Macmillan Cancer Support

Tonight, the 11th June, I will be starting the Bath Night walk in aid of Macmillan cancer support. It starts at 9pm at the Bath Rec, in the centre of the town. The walk will be about 4 miles long, so you can take a steady pace and enjoy the beautiful scenery around the City.
Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer, providing practical, medical, emotional and financial support. Working alongside people affected by cancer, Macmillan works to improve cancer care. One in three of us will get cancer. Two million of us are living with it. If you are affected by cancer Macmillan can help so please come along and take part, It is open to women only, but men should in no way feel left out! Dozens of volunteers are needed to cheer the walkers on and man the route. Registration is £10, and no minimum sponsorship is required (though an objective of £100 is gently encouraged). To sign up for the Bath Night Walk or find out more information, simply visit www.bathnightwalk.org where you can register online or download a hard copy form to complete. Walkers will then be sent a Bath Night Walk pack with everything they need to help raise their sponsorship target and prepare for the walk. see you there!

Decathlon Store Relaunch

Last week I drove up and down to Nottingham twice, a 320 mile round trip! I was at the Ikea retail park just outside Nottingham. I was asked to do a talk, to meet and greet people in the store, and give any advise on training. I also took part in many activities that had been set up in the big car park, so I scaled up climbing walls, kicked footballs as fast as possible, attempted to kick a rugby ball into different sized holes, I had a go on their archery set, table tennis and of course….space hoppers, having races against many children!! I almost lost my Olympic medal to one of them who was determined to take it home with him! Highly recommend heading to a Decathlon store for any sports equipment you need for any activity.

Hayesfield School New Sports Centre

Hayesfield school in Bath used to be my old secondary school, so when I was asked whether I would mind having the new performing arts and sports centre named after me, I felt very honoured. They have built a fantastic new building which includes a sports hall, gymnasium, multi gym, netball courts and all weather pitch as well as performing arts facilities for music and dance and Art teaching. There is also a new refectory and auditorium as well as a new reception area and open learning centre at the core of the building. I officially opened the building and said some encouraging words to the girls, I hope they will be inspired to take part in sport and that this building will be a place where the community and local area can all use.

Sports Industry Awards

On the 11th May I went up to London to attend the Sports Industry Awards at Battersea Evolution. I was there the year before, but this defiantly seemed to be the type of event that seems to get bigger and bigger as over 1,700 guests attended the spectacular 10th Anniversary celebration. Sports stars and celebrities were invited along with all the top business and companies in the sports industry. I was asked to present the award for Best Integrated Sport Marketing Campaign, along with Geoff Shreeves. I still find it nerve raking standing in front of that many people! However I enjoyed the night, was on a great table, mostly because it was made up of other MTC athletes such as the lovely Sally Gunnell who i was sat next to.

Kinect for Xbox 360

I have never been a computer games kind of a girl but when I was asked if I wanted to represent and promote the Kinect Sports interactive game for the Xbox 360 in London last week I had the urge to say yes and give it a go. I was keen to practice before hand so I got my first ever Xbox sent to my house and got some of the skeleton girls around to play with me. We had all just been to the gym and had had a full days training so to be honest we were all ready just to sit down with a cup of tea, but oh no, within no more then 5 Min's I had set up the Xbox having never set up anything like this before, I was a bit apprehensive but it was so easy, few plugs here and there and "ta da" we were ready to play. I had moved the furniture around to create a good space in my small living room and then the fun began! We laughed so much watching each other and seeing ourselves on screen, the Xbox copies what you are doing as your character on the screen moves around following your movements, amazing, so clever. All this practice of athletics, football, table tennis and volleyball was so that when I became a team captain on the 14th April in London I would know what I was doing! I was with other team captain, Graeme Swann, fresh from the cricket World Cup who also had Darius Knight our London 2012 table tennis hopeful and I was paired with Louis Smith, our first British gymnast to win an Olympic medal (pommel horse) since the 1920s, and London medal hopeful. We all spent the day playing against each other having an amazing time chatting to journalists and school children who had come along to play with us.

Sport England Announcement

My next trip was to Birmingham University to join The Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP, to join Sport England to announce projects benefiting from investment to get more university students playing sport. 41 initiatives have secured National Lottery funding through Active Universities. They are giving tens of thousands of students the chance to try out a new sport, or get back into one they’ve tried before, as part of the mass participation legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. I believe its really important to boosting student participation and it should have a lasting impact on grassroots sport. Research shows that students who do play sport at university are far more likely to continue participating throughout their lives which can only be a good thing.

AXA Ambition Awards

My trips up and down to London seem to have increased recently, I have become the AXA Ambition Awards ambassador. So went up to The Houses of Commons to launch the awards . The awards have been set up to find five exceptional young people aged between 11-18 who really want to succeed, whether its in , enterprise, the arts, science, sport, or in the community. They are an opportunity to make dreams come true. Each winner will win a prize designed specifically for them, such as mentoring from one of the five ambassadors. Go onto www.amibitionaxaawards.com to find out how you can apply or if you know someone who deserves it. I had been up in a radio studio at 5am doing over 15 interviews on various stations to promote the AXA awards so was shattered by the end of the day.