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.