Group ready for Paralympics after £20,000 lottery grant

Bradford PHAB Club has received £20,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, the UK’s largest community funder, to transform the lives of disabled and non-disabled children and young people by introducing them to accessible sports.

There are more than 120 PHAB Clubs throughout the UK, all providing a place where disabled and non-disabled youngsters can come together, have fun, and build lifelong friendships.

Sessions at Bradford PHAB Club include cricket, football, tennis, rounders, and athletics, with participants including young people living with conditions such as cerebral palsy, autism, learning difficulties, and ADHD.

Bradford PHAB has received a £20,000 National Lottery grant (Image: UGC)

It also takes youngsters on visits to the Lake District, where they take part in activities such as canoeing, caving, archery, and zip wiring.

The new funding will be used to support new and current programmes, including sports camps and community sports festivals, as well as non-sports activities such as delivering food parcels to vulnerable families in the local community.

Since April 2021, The National Lottery Community Fund has distributed nearly £105 million through over 1,200 grants to England projects involving sports that support people with disabilities.

Access to sport continues to be a challenge for many disabled people. Recent research by the Activity Alliance shows that only 43 per cent of disabled people feel they have the chance to be as active as they wish, compared to 69 per cent of non-disabled people.

It is a disparity that Akbar Khan, chair of Bradford PHAB Club, is looking to address with the help of the new funding.

He said: “Numerous studies show that the involvement of disabled people within sports has definitive results, leading to a more positive attitude and outlook.

“By providing a positive experience at our sessions we can help build children’s confidence and social skills, making them more likely to access other community sports facilities with their families outside our sessions, which is vitally important.”

Akbar first became aware of PHAB Club at a young age when his brothers were referred to it in the late 1970s.

Both Tariq and Imtiaz Khan had Muscular Dystrophy, and Akbar supported them at the sessions from the age of 12 until they sadly passed away at the age of 16.

In honour of their memory, Akbar became a volunteer at Bradford PHAB Club, before progressing to a Club Leader role for eight years. Realising his potential, the club then persuaded him to join the management team.

Akbar added: “I wanted to continue my involvement with PHAB Club as a testimony to the memory of my brothers, and to also try and help other families with disabled children, having had first-hand experience.”