Top wheelchair athletes support Burntwood company in charity fundraiser
Leading wheelchair athletes have joined a fundraising challenge this month to raise vital funds towards finding a cure for paralysis.
Team GB wheelchair basketball players Anastasia Blease and Ben Leitch, rising star Alice McHaffie and wheelchair racer Hilmy Shawwal are joining staff, customers and supporters of RGK Wheelchairs in a Strava fitness challenge for the charity Spinal Research.
They are ambassadors of the Staffordshire-based company, who manufacture made-to-measure sport and daily wheelchairs, and will be logging their activity on Strava during July to support RGK Wheelchairs’s fundraising push.
Alice, from York, plays for newly promoted Women’s Premier League Basketball team Tees Valley Mohawks. She said: "I want to raise as much money for and awareness of Spinal Research.
“This is an amazing cause that looks into spinal cord injuries and the medical research around them. As someone with a spinal cord disability I think there is so much research to be done. As a wheelchair basketball player I love a fitness challenge and hope as many people as possible can join in or share the challenge."
RGK Wheelchairs are based in Burntwood, Staffordshire, and have been producing custom, lightweight wheelchairs since 1988. Dorian Benjamin, Sales and Marketing Director, said: “We create the lightest chairs on the market that are uniquely made to match the requirements and individuality of every user to strive and unlock their unstoppable ambition.
“We’re also all about encouraging health and fitness among our customers and staff and the July Strava Fitness Challenge brings all this together to help Spinal Research in their unstoppable ambition to improve the lives of people paralysed after a spinal cord injury.”
Every two hours someone in the UK is paralysed after a spinal cord injury. It can happen to anyone at any time with devastating consequences.
Spinal Research is the UK’s leading charity funding medical research to develop life-changing treatments for the millions around the world living with a spinal cord injury and to ultimately cure paralysis.
Chief Executive Louisa McGinn said: “We’re delighted that some of our best wheelchair athletes are coming together in such a positive way to help raise vital funds to bring our vision of curing paralysis a step closer.
“We’re in touching distance of function restoring treatments and there is real hope that curing paralysis will be the medical breakthrough of the 21st century.”
To take part in or support RGK’s Strava Fitness Challenge go to justgiving.com/campaign/rgk24.
By Kim d'Arcy - Contributor
