​​A young disabled sportsman has upgraded his wheelchair, thanks to a grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

Joshua Gardner, 18, plays wheelchair basketball and rugby and needed a stronger, lighter and more reliable chair to progress.
Josh, who lives in Halton, Leeds, has seen great success in both sports, and heads to the Wheelchair Rugby Four Nations Cup next weekend (13 & 14 September) as first reserve.

He plays for the Leeds Rhinos WRL team, scoring around 20 points last season, and was also part of the Irish World Cup rugby team last year.

His Four Nations role comes hot on the heels as player/coach for England North at basketball in the UK School Games, where he helped the team win Silver last weekend.

He said: “My new chair is brilliant and arrived at the right time as I played in the National Basketball Championships just after it came. I wish I had had it in time for the Four Nations trials as it has also helped a lot with my rugby!”

Josh had little interest in sport as an able-bodied youngster but at the age of nine he contracted transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord, and began to use a wheelchair. His interest in sport grew, as did his success, and he hopes to make even greater progress with his new chair, aiming at making the team for the European Rugby Championships next year.
​
Away from sport, Josh has just begun an apprenticeship as a Broadcast Assistant with BBC Radio Leeds.

A previous winner of the Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards, sponsored by Harrogate-based law firm McCormicks Solicitors, has been given a grant by the Foundation that organises the Awards to help him further his own work with young people across the region and beyond.

Jono Lancaster of Normanton, who won the Unsung Hero Award in 2011, works with young people with a whole range of issues, talking to them about his own achievements and how he has overcome a rare congenital disorder to build a successful and fulfilling life and career.

Jono was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome, which leads to skull and facial deformities and hearing problems, and was put up for adoption just 36 hours after his birth.

His condition means that he has no cheekbones so his eyes droop and he has a bone-anchored hearing aid. He was bullied at school and taunted in public and rejected for a second time by his biological parents when he managed to track them down.

As well as helping to run a care home for people with autism, Jono now travels the world to share his experiences with other young people with Treacher Collins Syndrome and their families and with those facing other challenging issues.

The grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation will help him to continue his work with young people in Yorkshire. Forthcoming events include joining young offenders in Hull at an orienteering event and speaking to students at the University of Sheffield.

Jono said: “Although my mum is amazing, I didn’t feel that I could talk to her about my own problems when I was growing up as I didn’t want to upset her. I find that many of the youngsters I talk to also feel isolated and they are very pleased to have an opportunity to talk to someone.”

The Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation supports young people and projects benefiting them across Yorkshire. The Foundation was established in 2010 and one of its main purposes is to give grants from the proceeds of the annual Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards. The Awards marked their 21st anniversary last year. To celebrate this, the Foundation aims to make 21 grants in 2013/14.

A village school near Leeds has moved a step closer to a new learning centre, thanks to a grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

The Friends of Barwick School (FOBS) are fundraising to refurbish part of Barwick-in-Elmet C of E Primary School to create a new library and better IT facilities.

At present the library is in limited space in a corridor next to the existing IT lab which provides poor flexibility for use. Near to these is a resource room used for small groups.

FOBS plans to combine the three spaces to create an “agile” learning space, featuring an improved and updated library, more modern and flexible IT facilities and an area which can be used for both large and small groups of pupils.

The space will be available to other children in the parish, such as Beavers, Rainbows, Brownies and Cubs and Art for Barwick Children who use the school.

The project is expected to cost more than £32,000 and FOBS has already raised more than £6,000 through activities including a summer fair, Garforth Golf Club Gala and a Christmas Fair.

FOBS member Helen Barnard said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Foundation. This grant puts us well on the way to being able to transform the centre of the school and give the children new opportunities for learning.”

Foundation Trustee Ron Miller said: “Village schools can struggle to access funding for projects such as this which will make a huge difference to the school and we are delighted to be able to help.”

​Youngsters with special needs in Leeds have benefited from a new soft play area, thanks to the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

The play area, at John Jamieson School in Hollin Hill Drive, Oakwood, provides both leisure and learning opportunities for the school’s 200 pupils, all of whom have special educational needs, as well as for other local groups.

The school raised more than a third of the cost of the play area, with the Foundation meeting the remainder.

Pam Barrett, a member of the leadership team at John Jamieson School, said: “Our children have wide ranging special needs, including physical and medical difficulties and we also have pupils on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes parents and carers struggle to find activities for their children in safe settings and the soft play area is ideal for offering a variety of ways to increase physical activity and improve fitness at the same time.

“The new facility is fantastic and we are also able to use it for after-school groups.”

The grant was presented by Foundation Trustee, Ash Barnard. She said: “The soft play area is very popular with the children for both play and therapy. Children can have a one-to-one with carers and, when I visited, the carers were encouraging them to interact through play.”

 

A young Scarborough actress has been helped to achieve her ambition of attending drama school with a grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

Shannon Rewcroft, aged 22, of Scalby Road, knew she wanted to act by the time she was 11 and has now gained a place on a year-long course at the Drama Studio in London where she is studying classical acting, TV, film, radio and song and dance.

The grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation will pay for materials she needs for the course, such as scripts, an audio recorder, photography and even a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare.

She said: “It has really made things so much easier. We have already had to pay for professional photography for our head shots, which we send to casting directors, and it costs nearly £100 to sign up to become a professional actor.”

Shannon, who attended Scalby School, has worked since she was 13 to save money towards her ambition and has been fundraising with bake sales and concert evenings.

She has appeared in pantomimes, cabarets and summer season productions in Scarborough and has been part of a singing group offering entertainment for hotels and nursing homes. She has also assisted with teaching younger students in drama and creative learning, both at school and while at university.

After achieving three A grade A-levels at Scarborough Sixth Form College, she took a degree in Performance at Northumbria University. She graduated with First Class Honours in July and received the Johanna Harris Memorial Prize for outstanding performance and receiving the highest degree mark in the department. 

A grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundations has helped a Ripon youngster to see life from a new perspective.

Eight-year-old Doroteo Ronda Perez of Aismunderby Road has Cerebral Palsy and uses a wheelchair. His family has been fund raising to buy him a tandem wheelchair bike so that he can go on family bike rides.

They had already raised £1,180 when the Foundation stepped in to pay the rest of the cost of the specialist tandem which features a detachable wheelchair unit at the front and six gears for the rider to tackle different road types.

Doroteo’s mum, Stacey, said: “He is absolutely thrilled with it. It gives him a lot of freedom to get out and about.”

The family, including Doroteo’s six-year-old sister, Carmen Ann, hope to be able to take to the road together in the summer holidays but, in the meantime, Doroteo is planning to ride to Harrogate with his dad, also Doroteo, for an event on the Stray.

Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation Trustee Nick Lawson met Doroteo to find out how he liked his new transport. “It was brilliant to see him able to take part in a typical family activity and he is loving every minute of it,” he said. “The Foundation aims to help youngsters like Doroteo to get the most from life and his new tandem is certainly helping him to do that.”

An Indian Music Youth Orchestra is the latest organisation to benefit from a grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

Leeds-based SAA-uk (South Asia Arts UK) was seeking funding to develop a Yorkshire Indian Music Youth Orchestra to help keep classical Indian music alive in the UK. The orchestra will involve young musicians, giving them the opportunity not only to learn and perform classical music but also to compose and perform new music.

SAA-uk’s Community Engagement Officer, Maria Spadafora, said: “We’re grateful to the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation for this grant. The Yorkshire Indian Music Youth Orchestra (YIMYO) will be a first for this region, enabling young musicians from a range of backgrounds to learn and perform music from a 1,000- year-old tradition whilst developing their own skills as composers.”The grant is the latest in a series from the Foundation which supports young people and projects benefiting them across the Yorkshire region.

Much of the funding distributed comes from the annual Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards, which have now raised almost £950,000 in their 20 year history.

Foundation Trustee Charlotte McCormick said: “We are pleased that so many young people are benefiting from our direct support to a wide range of projects in the region. They are tomorrow’s achievers and it is hugely important that they are helped to develop their full potential.”

More than 70 members of the Down’s Syndrome North Yorkshire Support Group are heading off to the Flamingo Land Theme Park, thanks to a grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

The grant will pay for the visit by the Group which is run by parent volunteers for all people with Down's syndrome and their family carers who live in North Yorkshire.

The Foundation was approached by the Harrogate Poker League which was raising funds for a series of events for the Down’s Syndrome Support Group, including a ten-pin bowling trip and a visit to the Christmas pantomime.

Paul Underwood of the Harrogate Poker League, which has 1,700 members said: “We nominated the Support Group for a grant as it is one of the charities we have supported for some years. This grant means we can focus our attention on some of the other events that are so important to this group.” 

Among those taking part in the trip on Saturday 22 September is 19-year-old Matthew Constable, whose mother, Sheila, is one of the organisers. Matthew said: “I am looking forward to lots of things but especially the dodgems and the scary rides!”

The day-long visit will allow members to visit the zoo and experience the rides before a light meal and the trip home.

Physics and maths students at a Bradford college have been aiming for the sky, thanks to a grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

The A-level students at Grange Technology College in Haycliffe Lane built a rocket with funds from the Foundation so that they could take part in the UK Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge.

They were challenged to build a rocket which could carry two eggs to 800 feet and land safely, within 43 seconds.

The challenge was not without its setbacks and the first attempt saw the rocket damaged on its way to the launch, with subsequent attempts postponed by exams and then by the abnormal summer weather.

Science teacher Mary Williamson said: “It has been a really great experience for the students. They have experienced all the highs and lows of completing a challenging teamwork project and have developed their problem solving, communication and practical skills no end.

“We have been hoping the weather would improve before the end of the school year so that we could test but in the meantime we have been working on modifications so that the rocket can take photos of earth during its flight.”

Despite the lack of suitable launch weather, the project will not be abandoned, with plans to attempt a launch after the summer holidays.

Foundation Vice Chairman Richard Stroud said: “We are delighted to have been able to fund a project that has really captured the imaginations of the students involved as well as offering a practical demonstration of the theories they have been studying.”

Students at a Sheffield College have been able to take a tour of Cambridge University thanks to a grant from the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

The visit in February was organised by Yewlands Technology College in Parson Cross following a successful day trip last year by Year 8 students to discover more about what higher education can offer.

Yewlands Technology College’s Teacher of Modern Languages Ali Jaffer said the students had benefited enormously from the visit, which included attending undergraduate lectures, punting on the River Cam, taking part in workshops and dining in the magnificent surroundings of Magdalene College’s formal hall.

He said: “The upshot of the trip was a step-change in aspirations for those students. They each explained what the trip had done for them and several decided that they would love to study beyond both 16 and 18 so they could access the best quality of education and the most prestigious career options after that.”

Following last year’s successful visit, the same trip was planned again for this year, with an overnight stay, but the cost of transport and accommodation meant that the school was unable to run the visit at nil cost to the students, a key element in encouraging them to participate.