Unknown Speaker 0:10 Hello, everyone, welcome to this evening's event. hope everyone's keeping well staying safe during these ever challenging times. But my name is Mark cliff. I'm the Northwest Engagement Manager for Thomas Pocklington Trust, focus on my role is around support and in the setup of cycles councils in the region. So for those of you that don't know, sight loss councils are groups of visually impaired volunteers that are faced with needs of blind and partially sighted people. Matney we aim to help blind or partially sighted people live their lives to the fullest. So today's event is a Greater Manchester cyclists council events. So with any luck, this will be the last you hear of me, bar and Anita. So I'm gonna hand over now to our first guest, who is going to read a poem for us. We're joined by the blind poets, Dave Steele. I've heard Dave perform on many occasions. Now one of his fans were very thought provoking. And the feedback I get from all the blind or partially sighted people is how much they identify with the words. So please do listen, please do enjoy. I hope you enjoyed it spends more time going to. So without further ado, I'll hand over to Dave. Thanks very much, everyone. Unknown Speaker 1:24 Thanks, man. Thanks for having me. I'd like to thank the sight loss councils. And I want to share this poem that I wrote today, especially for this event. I used to make excuses. Avoid that crowded place felt distant from the outside world and things too hard to face. The blur would make me panic. Depression told me don't. My dreams weren't possibilities held back by things I want. But now I'm feeling positive. No challenge I won't try. And if I fail, these are these eyes on all I need to get me by. For visions more than seeing. It's all our minds create. I've realised that I decide. It's me to choose my fate. So though I'm not done losing sight and battles yet to come, instead of staying home alone, I'll face my fears till one won't compromise through exercise, play sports and dance and sing. The vision in my mind means I'll accomplish anything. Now blindness didn't break me take the man you see today, I swipe my cane with confidence to find another way. There's more to life than seeing there's more to sight than me. The vision in my mind creates the possibilities. Unknown Speaker 2:56 That was brilliant. Thank you, Dave still there for reciting this poem. poem today for was welcome everybody, to our Greater Manchester, vi for them for 2021. Let's get creatively active through sports and the arts. Now before we start, I've got a bit of housekeeping that I just need to share with everybody in a moment. So this session will be recorded so it will be available on the site loss Council website, and it will also be on our Facebook Live. So I'm Anthony Guf. And I'm a visually impaired creative in Greater Manchester sight loss council member along with my co host Sophie. Unknown Speaker 3:49 Hi guys. Unknown Speaker 3:50 I'm Sophie Thornhill, and I'm part of the sightless Council, and I'm really excited to be co hosting with Anthony today. Unknown Speaker 3:59 Today, myself and Sophie will be guiding you through today's event. So what's today's event all about? As we slowly enter into a post lockdown world, and find ourselves reflecting on a time, that's been difficult and challenging for us all. We as a sight loss council wanted to take a proactive approach by exploring the opportunities available to blind and partially sighted people across Greater Manchester in the fields of sport and performing arts. We want to examine the positive benefits of participating in sports and the creative arts, from socialising to confidence building to improve physical and mental well being. And we want to do this in a way that's open, interactive and engaging. So what farm will today's event take? The event will begin with our panel of guest speakers made up from representatives across big sports and across Greater Manchester This will be a chance to ask about their work. Learn about their experience, and the participates we opportunities available across Greater Manchester. We will then open the forum up to you guys for a q&a session. So have your questions at the ready. Finally, today's event will close with a low intensity breathing and share yoga session from our guest instructor, Claire Miller. Thanks, Anthony. Unknown Speaker 5:33 Before we get our panel guests, I wonder, can we please ask everyone to take part in a quick poll throughout 2021 and 2022. We'll be using regular polls to capture the views of blind or partially sighted people. And this is the first one. So listen carefully. Taking part in sports, physical activity, leisure and creative arts is a great way to improve the health and well being if you are blind or partially sighted, what is most likely to stop you getting involved? Is it confidence to take part? Is it finding out about the events? Is it transport to and from the events? Or is it the actual costs of activities? Unknown Speaker 6:20 Thank you, Sophie. And thank you everyone for taking part in today's poll. The results of these polls will be vital to the way in which the Greater Manchester sight loss council can respond to the voices of blind and partially sighted people across Greater Manchester, the Northwest and beyond. So without further ado, let's now go on to our first speakers. Unknown Speaker 6:50 Dave steel is an award winning poet, author, public speaker, singer and advocate for the blind. He was diagnosed with RP in 2014. And quickly found himself an unemployed father of four. With a financial burden of this loss of his income and his independence. Dave turned to social media, the sport with his RP journey. In 2015. He created his stand by me RP Facebook page, which has now become one of the largest social media RP groups in the world. Over to you, Dave. Unknown Speaker 7:25 Yeah, thank you for an amazing introduction. And once again, thank you for having me here today. So yeah, I'm going to kind of do a little bit of a condensed version of or, yeah, my story basically of, of my journey with low vision and blindness, which funnily enough, it was the anniversary of yesterday. Yesterday was seven years ago, to the day that I went for a routine eye exam to my local opticians and was officially diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. I already knew that it was in the family. But from a young age, I was always told that it probably wouldn't affect me until I was much older. And I just kind of got on with my life and worked as a singer. Touring all over the place started off as a bluecoat entertainer Pontins. For those of you that know the holy parks, does musicals in the West End and toured on cruise ships and pretty much just got around the world enjoying my life. And in 2014 said seven years ago, yesterday, I walked into a routine eye exam. I used to get myself checked every couple of years just to make sure I was still okay for driving. And they looked into the back of my eyes. And they saw that the pigment was a lot thicker than the last time they saw me. And immediately they said to me those words that a lot of you will be familiar with that. I had to stop driving immediately. And they were going to refer me to a retinal specialist. About a couple of weeks later, I was diagnosed as being severely sight impaired. I then started to lose my sight quite dramatically. I lost all my peripheral with in about eight months, and went through a lot of the things that people tend to go through with a new diagnosis a loss of independence, or loss of confidence. I struggled with anxiety and depression, not just due to the side that I was losing but because of the financial pressure. It was putting on my family, we fell through the the net and were not able to get the support that we needed with the waiting list of things like personal independence, payment and things like that, and really struggled for a while. And it was when my sister who was the first one to be diagnosed with RP suggested that I go onto social media and start speaking to people who are going through the same same thing. That was when things started to really turn around for me. That all changed when I after getting invited to a support group meeting. And they asked me to be the at the team for the support group, a support group in Newcastle for people with RP and Asha syndrome. I had this kind of eureka moment. I was in bed the night before and I was going over ideas of songs to sing Be in the entertainment for the support group. And I just had this idea where I thought if I could take a song that everyone knows, and change the words, it would have more of an emotional response and more of an impact. So I chose the song Stand By Me by Benny King. Because we all know the opening line of that, when the night has come on the land is dark, and the moon is the only light We'll see. Because that was like night blindness to me. And when I decided to choose that song, I rewrote the lyrics to it, call it stand by me, RP, performed it the following day. And then people were coming up to me and our support group saying that I was able to describe how they'd always felt about their journeys with low vision and blindness. And it was like, I kind of taken their own thoughts. And at that moment, I felt like I got something back, I always say to people that I went through that early stage of losing my confidence, my independence, my pride. But the biggest thing it kind of took for me was my purpose. I didn't know where my place was in the world anymore. And all of a sudden, I found the ability to kind of support people and help people and help myself by documenting my journey through poetry and music. Because to me, music and poetry is the same thing was when things really started to change. For me, I started writing poetry every day, documenting the good days, the bad days, I wanted to share everything. And every time I shared a piece of poetry online on one of these support groups, people would say to me that I was able to describe how they were feeling about their journeys. And they were also using my words as a way for them to communicate to their friends and family and their loved ones, how they were feeling. And that just encouraged me to write more. And, you know, it was writing every day two or three a day. And I released my first book stand by me, RP after that, that song, and that came out in February 2016. And in its first week, it became the number one European poetry release on Amazon, in both America and Australia. Volume Two came out the following year 2017, and volume three in 2018, which were both number ones, in Amazon, also on Amazon in America and Australia. On the very first days, I've now become to be known as the blind poet. I try and support people through my poetry all over the world. Now, I often speak at events before the pandemic hit, Unknown Speaker 12:23 both obviously here in the UK and in America as well. And now I do obviously, a lot of these kind of zoom events online and try and support people that way. So yeah, I think you know, before the pandemic hits, everything kind of changed. I've literally had my bags packed the week before when we went into lockdown when I was due to go out to America to be the first British house of the annual Helen Keller awards in DC, and add all these things plans, and then the pandemic hit. And we kind of changed things, or the way we do things. But it's great that we can all still connect in this kind of way. Before we kind of have our next speaker, I would like to share one other piece of poetry with you, if I may. This, I wrote on my weekly zoom call every Wednesday evening at nine o'clock tonight. Shameless plug here, I do this thing called team poetry, which is become one of the largest zoom calls in the blind community across America now, we have people tuning in from all over the world, and we have an hour of poetry and special guests. And I wrote this one at the end of last year, and people said that it really describes about how it really feels to live with blindness and low vision talking about a lot of the misconceptions that a lot of us face that you don't want blind kind of thing that we all go through, and a lot of things so I hope you guys can relate to this before I move on, or we move on to the next speaker, I want to share this last poem with you. This is called blind deceptions. I know this strength inside of you, though, all you feel is numb. Don't be afraid as eyesight fades for what is still to come. You will adjust in these words trust we share these tunnel dies, a mix of strength and anxiousness. The same in me applies. my shins are full of bruises and my confidence misplaced at times self isolated felt the world too much to face. So I'm here to remind you of the times we fail don't matter. There's lots of misconceptions still. Let's remind them of the latter. It's not that complicated change how blindness is defined. Let's educate articulate the many ways were blind. It's never all on nothing many shades and different views. Yet there's a stereotype they keep on printing in the news. No wonder Some of us have fears when out in crowded place. They see the cane but can't explain why we look them in the face. There's some of us who stay at home. convinced of the excuse that because we don't look blind enough. There's a need to be recluse. Don't waste your life on paper. People whose opinions are way off. Just swipe your cane with courage. Hold your head with pride a loft. So never doubt what we're about despite what some believe. Come join me on my mission change the way we are perceived. I won't let the haze that fills my eyes consume the rest of me. There's more to life than edge of knife. Despite what I can't see. Try not to care as people stare with lots of vague suspicion. But why should I explain to them the terms of my condition, though it's much simpler to stay home won't waste another day. There Pity's just an obstacle that's getting in my way, though I am blind won't be confined by OVAs, misconceptions. This poetry that spills from me will change their blind perceptions. Though anxious chest and dazed depressed, have far from disappeared. I've learned to breathe while I still grieve, control these things I feared. My kids look on, not on what's gone. But all each day I teach for if tomorrow their eyes pay live streams are still in reach. So while not cries vision dies won't focus on the blur. No point in holding on to how those days and I once were, thank you very much guys enjoy the rest of the event. Unknown Speaker 16:17 Thank you, Dave for that poem. That was brilliant. And I'm sure those words will be an inspiration to many people watch it. Our next speaker is lova faqih MBA, three times world and reading, Paralympic champion, bland, tambon, cyclist and food blogger. Laura is also a member of our V on Greater Manchester state loss Council. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Laura FACA. Hi, everyone. Unknown Speaker 16:46 Thanks for that, Anthony. And thanks for that Dave as well. That was an incredible poem. I really enjoyed it. And yeah, a little bit about myself, I've been blind pretty much from birth. And I've got a hereditary sightless condition. So it affects myself, my two brothers and my mum. And I've kind of survived, I've been quite fortunate in a way to grow up in a family that all around me people can't see. So we've got an incredible support network amongst ourselves. And we've we've always kind of helped each other and encourage each other and made sure that our sight loss has never held us back. And, and I think both myself and my two brothers have our parents to thank for that. And so we all grew up in mainstream education. And my parents were always very much kind of exploring opportunities for us to get stuck in and try new things. And especially sport. We're all a very credibly sporty family. And so I although I am not a cyclist, I didn't actually discover tandem racing until I was 21. Before then I tried athletics, I tried goalball I tried to best swimming. I even tried a bit of football and cricket to sort of join in with my two brothers. And yeah, I, my main sport was running for the majority of my childhood, and I went to quite a few races abroad with that, and then fell out of love with athletics when when I was about 17, went off to university studied to be a physiotherapist. And while I was at university, I was I was struggling. My second year there have had quite a sort of an not very nice experience on one of my placements. And I got talking to a friend who said, Why don't you go back to doing sport. And I said, I want to I love competing, but I don't want to go back to athletics. And she told me about a friend of hers who had recently lost his funding. He'd been to the Beijing Paralympics as a runner. And he'd lost his funding because he wasn't successful enough at the games. He hadn't made the the final of his events. So he he'd moved over to try tandem racing. And he was being he was suddenly incredibly successful at it. And I was like, I saw a tonne of racing at Beijing on the TV and it looked incredible. I just didn't know how to get involved. And then suddenly, there's this opportunity of like, well, maybe she could put me in touch and I can find out how to how to try and get in on the back of a tandem. So jumped at it. And within six weeks I was I was kind of on on a first do my first tandem race, which was quite scary really when I look back Now because I didn't have a clue about what I was doing as a cyclist, I just did what I was told basically. And off off a couple of races and training rides I did with with this girl that British cycling had had found to ride with me. I was I was selected for my first World Championships, which is back in 2009. Now, which makes me feel incredibly old. fact I've been doing this now full time. So I'm, I'm a full time cyclist, and I'm fortunate enough to be funded by UK sport. So lottery National Lottery funding. So my job is basically to train six days a week on a on a bike. And yeah, I've been doing it for 12 years. And within that time I've been to to Paralympics i was i was in London, and then Rio, where Rio, I became Paralympic champion. And I'm in, you know, current full time training ready getting ready for Tokyo. And obviously, it's been postponed by a year. And when, when that first moment was announced, we were all pretty devastated. But fortunately, we kind of manage that because I was up again, and you know, we go again, and hopefully this time it will go, it will happen, we're all very positive about that it is going to happen. So it's really exciting. And so yeah, a bit about tandem riding itself. And I'm obviously the one that goes on the back. Because if I was the one in charge involved in steering, it'd be pretty dangerous. Unknown Speaker 21:43 And I personally raced on both track racing and road racing. So the track is the velodrome and it's a 200 metre 250 metre, kind of indoor track made of wood, and you race around it at incredible speeds. And then road racing, we do what's called time trial, which is against the clock, so you're all set off a minute apart. And it's the fastest bike wins, it's my favourite event. And then the road races the out kind of you all start at the same time. And it's you ride around together and you whoever crosses the line first is the winner. So that's the one where you get that opportunity if you are the winner, you know, you know straight away and you can get your hands up and celebrate. So it's also quite a fun one to be a part of. Yeah, my my Paralympic title is from the track. But I'm really hoping to, to defend that title in Tokyo and also add one from the road. Because like I say, road road is what I love. I love the fact that tandems the feeling of speed and being outside that it gives me when I'm riding and yes, you know, I do this, you know, I say this is my day job, but I do it for a living but you don't need to be doing it full time to enjoy that feeling of being out and about and just riding along especially. You know when the sun's out, don't you can't beat it just ride in with and that's what that's the beauty of being on a tandem. You're never on your own. You're always with someone so it's it's such a nice sort of companionable thing to be riding along together and share so many experiences and they say you don't have to go fast or train every day to enjoy it. You know, if you do get an opportunity, it's it's the best feeling ever. Unknown Speaker 23:52 Thanks, Laura. That's brilliant. That's a great to get an insight into and into your career there. And so next up, we have ada eravamo. And ad is a performing arts graduate and an intermediate level gold, gold ball player and a place for the musi sharks goalball team, a team that she has helped to set up during her times during Liverpool. And in the Andes, an event even part of the talent pathway for the GB women's gold war team. Like Laura add is also a member of our great map Greater Manchester Silas Council. So over to you, Adam. I'm quite wait to hear about your story. Unknown Speaker 24:35 Thank you. Unknown Speaker 24:35 Thank you very much. And Dave and Laura very inspiring stuff. And so yeah, I'm a graduate as of last year, and I suppose my Performing Arts journey started in high school. I really struggled in high school. I was never an academic student. I was quite shy. I struggled in math, science history. In fact, I still struggled Math. So but when it came to performing arts or drawing or moulding, creating, dancing, singing, those were places I, I really fried and I enjoyed doing that, and I loved it, and it brought my confidence up. And so I decided as well as my other GCSEs, I would, I would do take drama as a GCSE as well. And then I went on to take it as a B tech and a levels in college. And so I went for college for the blind, new college was in Worcester. And there I've kind of realised how adaptable performing arts and art can really be. Because they're because they're everyone is visually impaired and in the same boat. So art and creativity, I've really been moulded to be adaptable. And I didn't, I didn't know about that. So that was brilliant to experience that. And I realised I wanted to, that's the job I want to be in, I want to be in a creative industry, I want to work in a place that I genuinely enjoy working, not just going to work just for the sake of earning money on and love what I'm doing. So I decided to take it out of the university and I went to Liverpool. And whilst I was in Liverpool is where I met my gobo team. Now mercy shots, I actually found out about golf ball when I was in college. So we have some from global UK come to do a taster session. And I'm so glad I went because until then I'd never heard about goalball none of my friends are really that sporty. So I'd never heard of global. So I'm so glad I went to that first session, because I could have easily just seen it and gone. I don't know what that is and never experienced it. But it's done so much for me in a couple of years. And I love it. I love the training. I love the teamwork and the travelling, and the experience you get from being with a team. And I love the community as well, because everyone that is got some form of visual impairment and you're all in the same boat, and you're all helping each other. Whether it's like searching a sports building, to try and find what you fill up your water bottles or like crossing over the road to get Gregg's before your next competition. It was just an amazing experience. So I think that paired with Performing Arts has really, really made me a more confident, stronger person. And whilst I was in Liverpool is where I learned about disabled artists who work to create and perform and tall, I didn't know that that was doing GCSEs or a levels. So I learned about companies and artists who are made up of companies who are made up of disabled people and artists who told that work. You've got data Fest in Liverpool and you've got you've got engaged to stage here you've got my mug up. And in fact, I whilst I was at uni, I went to a assisting directing course with mine the gap, which is one of the companies that work with disabled and learning disabled people. And whilst I was there, I I love this so much because I've never experienced a place that was built around making Performing Arts accessible for disabled people. Even though the performing arts industry in itself is very adaptable. As long as you have the conversation about your access needs and what you don't do need and and everything can be adapted to fit around you. And there's not a problem. I love that mindset of the creative people. Unknown Speaker 28:56 But yeah, from the mind that out I got offered an assistant directing job, which I have to look forward to. And I really, I really hope in the future, my dream, my dream would be to work in one of those companies developing more dynamic work working with disabled and sighted people merging the two together to create to create amazing pieces of work and I look forward to doing that and learning a lot more. And I think sports and new creative art as a wonderful way of building building yourself confidence and just becoming a stronger person. Unknown Speaker 29:37 Thank you Unknown Speaker 29:42 and thank you as I'm sure many people who are tuning in will feel inspiration and be able to relate actually to those words and I was a visually impaired creative myself I can definitely relate to that and the and the adaptability of the creative industries and with that Mind that moves us on to our next speaker. Our next speaker is a visually impaired creative who has worked as an actor, director and freelance facilitator, a recipient of an avenue B Recognition Award for her work in performing arts. She is currently a director of engaged to stage a theatre company based in Barrie, Greater Manchester developed for and by VR created. It is a pleasure and honour to introduce Elizabeth Roni. Unknown Speaker 30:31 Thanks. Unknown Speaker 30:33 So cool. Unknown Speaker 30:34 And I just want to say it's just tremendous to be talking to you beautiful people about sports and creative industries and, and how and we keep mentioning the word confidence and self confidence and and i think that's, you know, that's that's a big thing in my book for people adder. adder is the reason why I do what I do adder, I applaud you, I really do. And I'm, I'm a slightly older woman as well. Which means is a little bit of history to my creative past. And I wanted to be an actor, that's all I ever wanted to be was an actor. And I was happily auditioning for drama schools and how to car accident at about 19 years old. And that's when I lost my sight. And it kind of I thought put pay to put pay to being an actor. And it wasn't until a few years later, and in those years that I, as we all do, I just learned to I just needed to learn how to live with being visually impaired. That's what I needed to do. And and then I, I literally just woke up one morning and thought, you know what, I really want to be an actor, what can the industry offer me, and that was a very long time ago, girls and boys, that was about 30 years ago, and it didn't offer very much it has to be said to a visually impaired want to be actor. drama school didn't offer me very much they didn't really understand. In fact, when I came eventually to drama school. And I didn't, I didn't declare, I know this is gonna sound bizarre, but actually didn't declare that I was visually impaired. Because I thought they're never going to get it. And it was, he was fairly during a physical theatre exercise where we were all running around as animals, which is what you do, of course, as an actor, you always got to be an animal. And I kept bumping into people and people kept. Unknown Speaker 32:38 And we were all over the shop. Unknown Speaker 32:39 So I thought I need to, I need to have a conversation. And I did have the conversation and they didn't know what they were dealing with. And I know, I know that some of you are going to relate to that as well. And, and that's how I approached this industry and industry that really didn't know what to do with a visually impaired actor. And I, I, I many years later, after having a family, I decided that I needed to enter the industry as a professional. And I started to look at how to connect Unknown Speaker 33:15 the theatre, Unknown Speaker 33:17 the theatres with visually impaired people and visually impaired people who wanted to act. And I came across a company who are based in London, and I worked as the participation coordinator for them. And and in an in between that I was auditioning and working as an actor, not very much, I hasten to add, because and I'll say it again, they didn't know what industry didn't know what to do with a visually impaired actor. And, and Unknown Speaker 33:47 so Unknown Speaker 33:49 that's changing. And that's the good news. I guess that's changing now. And we've got the RSC took on their first visually impaired actor in their last season. And which was which is great for, for us actors to know that they're up for that. I, I have taken part in tools and films, and with companies that are more inclusive, and that's growing as well, which is brilliant. And I'm one of the so but one of the things that really became very close to my heart was was knowing what I'd been through as a young visually impaired person wanting to enter the industry was how did I How did I communicate my experience, but also really encourage encourage young people and anybody into the industry that was sensitive. That seemed to be the big one for me. And I, I founded along with Anthony actually engaged to stage a few years ago, and we've run lots of projects that really have that at the heart of it. So you don't have to be an actor, you don't have to have any professional experience whatsoever. If you have a heart to just be creative, and want to play and want to join in and meet other people, and I know that sounds a bit corny, that phrase, and I just want to meet all the people, but if you want to meet like minded people who are just up for a bit of fun, and who want to want to explore their own creativity, and and, and do it in a fully, fully accessible way. And this is the key, without watering down our experience of what it means to perform or be a creative, nothing is watered down when we do our work we work with, we work with actors from Shakespeare's Globe, we work with people who go all over the world and tick tick checks there for a living. We work with people who've trained with Philly glue school in Paris, in clowning, and on all things grotesque theatre, and we do it and we do an industry standard. And we do it with professionals, which is hugely exciting. And we're the only one to do that, that we're aware of in the country. So that's all very cool. And what else do I want to say, to encourage you all to, to, to just explore things. And I want to say that in a post COVID in a, in a COVID experience and post COVID experience, we have found that we can adapt. And we are we have done so much of our work online, we've made films in a safe way. And we've made I've made a film with the Manchester international festival that was about all things performance and creative. And that which is very funny, you can get that on YouTube. It's called playing through the looking glass. And we're just about to launch another film about our journey home, which was a storytelling project originally, but we've made a film out of it. And yeah, so so get in touch with us and just get involved. It's it's we have people of all different ages, all different levels. But with just a real hard to, to find their creative. Chrome, their creative soul. So that's me. Thank you so much for inviting me to be here today. That's really super. Unknown Speaker 37:37 Thank you, Elizabeth. That Unknown Speaker 37:38 was brilliant. It Unknown Speaker 37:39 was a great insight into what, what you guys do. And yes, thank you for that. So next we actually have our final panellist, Shiraz, Shoham, and the blind coach is the founder and Secretary of language Alliance vi sports club. Founded in 2011. The Lions offer a range of sports including vi cricket goalball, Lion basketball, a finalist in UK coaching, changing lives awards, and a recipient of the unsung hero award in 2015 and 2017. Manchester sports was is my great pleasure to introduce sheraz over to us. Unknown Speaker 38:25 Thank you very much. My apologies. Can Unknown Speaker 38:26 you hear me? Unknown Speaker 38:27 Okay, I'll take it, you can hear me. And first of all, I'd like to say it's an honour being a part of this setup here today of the Greater Manchester sight loss Council. Also a real pleasure to be besides four really passionate and inspiring panellists. So yeah, I will kick off my part and infant as one I've really enjoyed the journeys of the four panellists. And just to give some overview and insight on my journey, obviously, I'm here on behalf of the lunch Alliance, visually impaired sports club. As lovely lady said before, we've got an offer of three different various sports that we offer to the Lancashire grip Manchester or broader as well, all the catchment areas of luxury and Manchester, where we based an offer of blind cricket where we originally started off in 2011. And I guess, the passion, the drive the right kind of people on board, the committee, and as I said, teamwork makes the dream work. You know, we've had the right desire and we moved on, we branched out a few years later to, to go ball successfully. And yeah, recruited two people more opportunity to play various sports. Also, more recently, 2018 19 towards 19. We branched out to blind baseball, it was not basketball that we play. I've never played that in any blind spot yet, but that's a good idea. Maybe start that one up soon as well. And Future, but yet blind baseball. So as you can imagine, we've got various sports going on because not everybody would like to play cricket. Nobody likes to play a golf ball. Also, baseball so does an offer on the join the cost of pandemic, obviously, we got a bit creative. And as you can imagine, if you're proactive, you're out on the road, enjoying the season summer, you know is our peak, we're up and down the country participating in different sports cricket, as I mentioned before goalball and baseball, obviously, in this challenging past 12 months, this has been non existent. For a lot of people it's made, you know, a drastic change in everybody's life. And you have to, you know, get your thinking hat on and you know, get a bit more creative. So, obviously, our social media shot through the roof can be loud and proud of that we even recruited more members come through into the lunch line set up as a social aspect as well. We managed to do quite a few activities and challenges the Fitbit challenge steps challenges were the one that really sticks out is, you know, we participated in diabetes UK, the median step challenge, which we actually fundraised up to about 500 pounds with our members, collectively and individually as well, doing a million steps during the course of September onwards, July to September onwards. And Unknown Speaker 41:27 amazingly, some of our members completed a million steps on their own as well. So you can imagine how proactive some of these individuals was before the pandemic. And it was paramount of having our members, you know, well being prioritised and make sure we exercise them. You know, we did quite a bit on Whatsapp group social media groups where we did exercise lessons and exercise the mind in exercise in the body as well, as I mentioned exercise in the mind, we, in collaboration with the similar organisations and clubs over the past 12 months, we've networked, and we've hosted quizzes, and build relationships, really, with the visually impaired community, something that I always want to do being passionate about myself as well. And, you know, it's kind of how can I say excelled in the sense of we're more memberships come through, we've made more friends, people have appreciated our ethos, we've networked with similar people with a similar ethos towards, and it's just, you know, progressed in the sense of, you know, you imagine a lot of people at the start, not even use in any, any social media, social media, kind of even the phones using WhatsApp, so upskilling members like that, and getting them you know, to use no social media, platforms, etc. And actually, just taking that step towards independence, I think that was essential. So it was a step away from normality for us, because we're, you know, a full on sports club training sessions practising, obviously, yeah, competitive games, we've had our social element over the past 10 years, but not as much a sport. So it was, it was a step out of normality, as I said before, and the pandemic will just step out of normality for for everyone really, you know, is, you know, unprecedented circumstances, as the as everybody keeps the same. We've managed to, we've managed to, you know, really get some members of skilled with social media, with the fitness. Also, just genuinely, you know, I think the key word of today is competence. And I think self esteem and confidence as shot through the roof of some of our members. And the beauty of our club is as well, just to sell it a bit more, as I say, is obviously all ours that we play is basically males and females can play in a similar team, there's none of this. There's a male. And this is a male dominated sport, you can't play. We've got mixed in, in cricket in in gobel. And our global teams, some of the females are better than our males, which doesn't surprise me that better than most of us at most things anyway. And baseball wise as well. And I've had the honour to obviously protect Great Britain myself. in baseball in 2019, a world classic, something that we launched from the lunch of lions, we are the controlling body of UK, blind baseball. And also I'm a delegate myself for the AI BSC, the controlling body and the governing body. That's not the ownership of blind baseball. So I'm carrying that work it myself, in Asia, in Africa, and New Zealand, and more recently, Australia as well promoting the sport blind baseball and were brought to UK. And yeah, that's a bit about the sports, my own personal achievements. You know, besides that, this thing for me over these past 10 years, is, you know, being a part of individuals, journeys where they can really You know, reach the highest platform they want to, and seen some youngsters from school, our school programmes Unknown Speaker 45:07 really, really growing confidence and growing stature as well, during the course of, you know, the journey that I've been a part of with them as well involved in coaching involved in connection with like goalball, UK, blind cricket, are the various governing bodies, you know, liaising and networking with them, you know, and seeing some of these youngsters really, really progress in life and grow. And with their self esteem and confidence shooting through the roof, you know, it's made me feel very humble. And it's just, you know, no organisation could be running this on, you've got to have a great, you know, team, the analytical workforce is very good. With a multicultural club, with different backgrounds. That's the beauty of it, as well, we all learn of each other different aspects of different people's lives. And, you know, we get out and we really enjoy being together. I think that's the important thing. I think Elizabeth mentioned about like minded people, people you can relate to most definitely, I think it's essential that you know, people communicate a learn thing to each other and meet individuals. And, you know, that's where, you know, other people can share that information with you, like we've done here as, as a forum here today. And we're all the doors open. And I think creative arts, education, sports, is a key to open a lot of doors in life. Obviously, somebody that's experienced that myself, because I comedysportz, late myself, it's been about 10 years coming to blind spots, and I think it opens a lot of doors. And it does really improve your day to day independence as well, it can give you a confidence boost. And it can really, you know, make you feel release endorphins from your brain, you know, when you do exercise, when you be involved in sport, I mean, some of our members live for the next training session. So you can imagine with the pandemic, what they went through, so we had to, you know, really make some sort of, you know, setup word, they can actually communicate with each other. And we could do some sort of exercises with being not being together but being together in a virtual way, the kind of world that we live in, in past 12 months. And yeah, it's going back to lunch or lions lecture, Lions have won many achievements over the years, recognised recognised for club of the year disabled club in Manchester, myself with awards and other individuals as well. going out to reach Great Britain with goalball. More recently, baseball, and blind cricket England and Wales, people winning, you know, achievements. on the field luncheon lines have won achievements and off the field as well. And the most important thing of it is, is people getting together. And you know, having the same kind of goals, and our aims and objectives are is to bring people together, where they can actually relate to each other, play sports, and actually excelling further life. I mean, obviously, I've seen myself with sports, people have gone on, and further education, they've really excelled. And vice versa, the comfort of education and coming through to sports. And it's really increased the mental well being the confidence. And it's just been amazing to be a part of such a journey, and seeing people really progress in life. And my message to going out to everybody as well is, I've met so many people in life, that said, I've just lost my sight. I can't do nothing anymore. I was fully sighted. And that's the biggest challenge for people and I've been honoured to be part of people's journey to get them engaged into blind and partially sighted sports to get them active. And another under the scenario is somebody that's visually impaired and thinks, Oh, I'm not good, I'll never be able to play and then just to lift a bar, or lift a ball and be a part of the, you know, a session that we, you know, provide for us is most most enjoyable and most, you know, you feel honoured, and making individuals be the best they can. And thank you very much for having me so far. Unknown Speaker 49:16 Thank you. Thank you so much. I know that people listening will feel that I know I do. Personally, I feel definitely motivated and inspired now to actually get get off my butt actually and, and get more involved in in sport. I really do especially after eating a lot of chocolate over Easter. So now moving on to this next section of today's event. We want to hear from you. If you have any questions for any one of our panel speakers. Comments are no with any arts or sports related opportunities across Greater Manchester or the wider region. Please use the comment section making clear whoever speakers your questions are far We'll do our best to get answers to as many questions as possible. If you are a jaws screen reader user, the keystroke shortcut is alt h to open the chat, type in your message and press enter. Before our live q&a session, we have got some pre submitted questions. And to introduce these, we are going over to our colleague and SLC member Maddie. Unknown Speaker 50:29 Hello, everyone has been really inspiring listening to all our panellists. I hope you're enjoying it. Yes, we have some pre submitted questions. And I'm sure your questions are confiding in so Anthony, please let me know when you want me to stop the Unknown Speaker 50:47 panellists. Right, our first question goes to Laura. I've never really thought about getting involved in cycling, I didn't know it was an option for me. How would I get started? Laura? Yeah. It took, unfortunately, Panda ride is kind of notoriously tricky to involve them in the current climate where it's impossible to serve in tandem, but say, that's probably the best option and the kind of, to run on different clubs. Unknown Speaker 51:36 And also, Unknown Speaker 51:38 contact, especially for round loads has a tandem club, berry in Greater Manchester has a tandem club. So you know, it's kind of just ask, don't be afraid to ask around and contact your local, if you if you know of any local cycling clubs, there might be someone there who's got an old tandem and would really love an excuse to go out on it. And it's amazing how many condoms there are around, he kind of just need to, you know, ask really, that's, that's, that's my biggest bit of advice, or fun to write. Our next question goes to Elizabeth. I don't think Unknown Speaker 52:22 I'd like to perform on stage. But how else would I be able to get involved? Unknown Speaker 52:27 Please? Oh, well, um, no, not everybody wants to do that. So there's often often we look at creative writing projects. We've done film projects, where we've had people support the making of the film. We've had live theatre projects, where we might have someone who's a little bit more interested maybe in looking at the lighting or the tech or, or even looking at the set design. So it's not just being a diva on stage like me. You don't have to do that. No, we just we look at the creative, the creative aspect of, of making theatre and making film and, and the team that that that takes to make it so there's lots of other opportunities. Oh, Unknown Speaker 53:20 thank you very much less and less funds Unknown Speaker 53:22 for other? Unknown Speaker 53:25 And who or what inspired you to take up the sports and arts? Other? Unknown Speaker 53:34 Yeah, well, I don't have any specific names. But I guess just researching about other Performing Arts creators who are disabled. Being involved, like watching the festivals, because many companies have festivals where, and they have different artists, showcasing their work and seeing that, and just following their work inspires inspires me and knowing well, that they as a disabled person has been able to come so successful. And you know, I could do it too. And knowing that I could, you know, just message them and ask for advice. And people are very happy to give you advice. And sports wise, I love watching players higher up than me and seeing how good they are. And that just inspires me to just be like, one day I want to play games, that person that inspires me. Oh, thank Unknown Speaker 54:39 you very much. I'm sure all our listeners are inspired by our panel today. And it's questions for Dave. Unknown Speaker 54:48 One particular person who's inspired your writing. Unknown Speaker 54:54 Great question and if I had to pick my kind of inspiration Poetry comes from music a lot of the time because poetry music to me at the same thing. You know, all my poems are meant to be turned into songs, which is a project I'm working on in the future. But if we're going on strictly on poetry, there's actually a poet from great Manchester, who actually lives around the corner from me by the name of Tony Walsh. Now, those of you might be familiar with Tony, when we have the horrible incident, the ariana grande de terror attack a few years ago at the NBN arena, the day after, there was a vigil in in Manchester. And Tony Walsh stood there, and read a poem called This is the place it's available online. If you go to YouTube and type in Tony Ross, this is a place and it talks about the strength and the pride and the passion that we have in Manchester for the arts and music, and fashion and football and everything and how we wouldn't let anything kind of be us. And, and his work really does inspire me. And you know, I think here in the northwest of England, recent very much recently, we've got a great collection of poets and poetry to me, when I was younger, probably was more for the upper classes, and it was stuff that didn't rhyme. And it was very difficult to make sense of and, and now it's really gone back to its roots of being, you know, for the people and easily understood and something that really hits the soul, which is what my poetry is all about. And I love seeing it from other people. But yeah, Tony Walsh is definitely one that really inspires me. Unknown Speaker 56:40 Thank you very much. They Unknown Speaker 56:41 appreciate that rock Unknown Speaker 56:44 sheraz, can you take part in the activities you talked about at any age? And are they suitable for the families Unknown Speaker 56:53 for all families? Unknown Speaker 56:57 Shirazi that. Sorry, Unknown Speaker 57:03 Marie, my Unknown Speaker 57:04 apologies. Great Unknown Speaker 57:05 question. Yeah, first of all, Unknown Speaker 57:08 I'd like to say our sessions, we we tend to invite family members to be involved, siblings, etc. to help out because when a family kind of set up as a club, as calm to actually competing, competing, obviously, there's a criteria to the governing bodies that we play sports with. And yes, our ages are for competitive 11 and above, but we do have youngsters to come in to be involved in our sessions and the family members, we do encourage them to be involved in it, whether it's through cricket, gold ball baseball, to have a go and be involved. We also give the option to sighted personnel that come down tried to simulation specs on try the shades on a bit of awareness to to see how we can live our life day to day. So the answer to your question is, we would not rule it out. If us 910 would say come down have a go. I would encourage anybody to come and be a part of our setup that we run in Manchester, and more a few lungfish. Here. We've got people coming from everywhere. So yeah, we're open for any suggestions. Anybody wants to get in touch? I'm sure Matt's got my details I can give him at the end as well. Unknown Speaker 58:17 Thank you very much. And near me. All right. Carry on. I've Unknown Speaker 58:21 got some more. Unknown Speaker 58:23 Yeah, just a couple more. Unknown Speaker 58:24 That's brilliant. And right for all the panel, what benefits have you experienced? And with your involvement in sports Unknown Speaker 58:35 and arts? Unknown Speaker 58:37 so on if Swamy of the panel what benefits for you personally, have you experienced in the sports and arts? And I'll jump in quickly. It's Laura faqih, and for me personally, it being able to compete against other people with a similar impairment to me, you know, it's like it's amazing. self confidence, boost and sport. Unknown Speaker 59:04 For me Unknown Speaker 59:04 I pride is one of the only things where I can compete on a level playing field with everyone else around me. And you know, it does, it just makes you feel good about yourself and boost. Real, real positive mental boost. Unknown Speaker 59:19 I'll jump in now and massive, massive effect. It's added me I mean, obviously, you've probably got that from from kind of my story, being able to write poetry. And you know, I've been writing now six years, just just about six years, I'd never really written poetry before I started to lose my sight. It was only when I started to write about something that really meant something to me, they began to really spill out on me. And six years later, since I started writing the poetry now I've written over 900 poems. Actually three books published and another one coming out towards the end of this year, which I want to speak about just yet. But, you know, being able to write A poem that takes no longer than 20 minutes to write, use the power of social media and click a button and send it around the world to help support someone and really, you know, impact their day is such an amazing thing to be able to do. And it's really afforded me great opportunities to travel the world and speak at wonderful events. Be an ambassador for henshaws have to give a shout out to henshaws being on this call, and do some great work here in the UK as well. So I'm very grateful every day for the ability to do this. today. Unknown Speaker 1:00:31 Thank you panellists. Until now, commodity, you can come back to me I've got Unknown Speaker 1:00:37 Dr. Unknown Speaker 1:00:40 William, thank you, man. Right. So we're just going over now to our live questions Who will be presented by penair who is from the Thomas Pocklington trust that the comms department will want our live questions today. Unknown Speaker 1:00:59 Hi, well, the chats been really busy, both here on zoom, and on our Facebook Live. So just just to feedback on some of the lovely comments. So there's been some lovely comments today about his poetry for Laura about, you're such an inspiration. Someone's saying that they're doing Judo, hoping to go to the Paralympics in 2024. For aid I love hearing that story and the perspective and opportunities. And for Elizabeth, those comments to say this is music to my ears. I have a daughter with Asha syndrome. Thank you for paving the way and creating these opportunities. some amazing comments in our Facebook Live. Samer said It's so lovely to hear such inspirational individuals great session, one inspiration. And apparently, Nina said you have one of your poems at her wedding. So those were comments. So comments are flooding in questions. We've got loads of questions, too. So a question from Louise is she currently has a tandem on loan from Charlotte's tandem. My little in height and age on the front and me and on the back, I get really scared on the road. Where would you say is the best place to ride to get used to the tandem as an absolute beginner? I guess that's for Laura. Unknown Speaker 1:02:22 Yeah, definitely Unknown Speaker 1:02:24 try, Unknown Speaker 1:02:25 you know, try and find some quiet roads and go out into the country. Unknown Speaker 1:02:31 Or, Unknown Speaker 1:02:32 you know, definitely don't start at what my, my first road tandem experience was right, smack bang through the middle of Birmingham City Centre, which was a little bit daunting. So I wouldn't recommend that. And maybe if you can see if there's any sort of road, cycling clubs around that have, there's there's quite often these closed circuits. They're almost they're called like crit circuits. And it's like, like a racetrack for cars and bikes, and it's outdoors and that you might be able to get on one of them or even just, if you, you know, find a quiet Park area and just just take it steady and build up your confidence slowly, really, you know, it's quite daunting at first, especially putting your trust into someone else on the front who's kind of got your life in their hands. So be kind to yourself, don't expect it to feel great straightaway, you will you will have to kind of get used to it. Unknown Speaker 1:03:37 Great. Okay, next question. And this is to Elizabeth. So, Louise says your passion shines through Elizabeth. But can I ask if this is something that is just in Greater Manchester? Or is this nationwide that's to Elizabeth Unknown Speaker 1:03:54 engaged to stage work is is nationwide. And because currently, it's all online, which is amazing, because that means we can you we can access communities, visually impaired communities all over the country. And when we're when we're together physically, we tend to use some regional theatres around Greater Manchester. So um, but on a personal note, you just got to you know, it's wherever you want to go, Unknown Speaker 1:04:23 you go. Unknown Speaker 1:04:23 And that's that. That's that. Unknown Speaker 1:04:28 Very resounding. I'm just taking in a couple of questions from our Facebook Live viewers. So um, there was a question saying, ADA, can anyone join the Mind the Gap organisation ADA. AJ, you're on mute ADA. Unknown Speaker 1:04:59 You're on mute. Is that better? Much better than myself? Unknown Speaker 1:05:11 Yeah, you can join them. If you go on their website, they have a few workshops and opportunities available. And they they even do doesn't mind the gap school performing arts school as well. And unfortunately, they've just had the application. So maybe next year, you have to see what they're going. But if you if that's something you want to do educationally it as you can join the school, and there's loads of opportunities, so you just have to keep an eye out and see what they've got. And just you just apply, and you love it. Unknown Speaker 1:05:47 Great. Thank you. And an anonymous attendee here said, Thank you to the panel. You're all fantastic. A story of locating water coolers is something I can relate to myself. Again, a question for you ADA, what would you say has been your funniest blind moment in either sports or the arts? Unknown Speaker 1:06:07 Oh, Unknown Speaker 1:06:07 Sony's blind? Unknown Speaker 1:06:11 I'm okay, Unknown Speaker 1:06:13 I have to say, um, so we had this performance we were supposed to do for our course. And last minute, our teacher decided he was going to change the lighting, he was going to put floor lights on and turn the main lights off. So he was, will you be okay. We'll be okay. Doing it. So I was like, Yeah, yeah, I thought I'd be fine. Because it leads them before like, but within the performance, I ended up bouncing with the wrong person for a while. Whoa, peace. So I was supposed to be energy wet. And I did the first half. Great. But the second half, I couldn't find my partner. So I don't think we're completed from partner and it was completely improvised. So I don't know. I have it was dark enough that people couldn't see that. But yeah, that was quite funny. Unknown Speaker 1:07:03 That sounds great. This question back to Liz. So Steven asks, well, Stephen said, You've adapted during kobus COVID. Because we have to adapt every day in order to get on in life. So we're used to it. But can you tell me more about how Grammar School adapted for you, and how you adapt to it, and how you use that experience in the professional world. Unknown Speaker 1:07:28 And Unknown Speaker 1:07:29 poor? Well, drama school didn't adapt for me. But as I pointed out, when I was telling you about it, that was a very long time ago, and I and I'm pleased to say that it's changing, it really is changing. So I wouldn't I really want to encourage people to know that they can go to drama school. And how did I Unknown Speaker 1:07:53 use it? And Unknown Speaker 1:07:55 I, how did I adapt at drama school? I didn't, I'm dogeared I'm afraid I'm quite dogged about what my passion and, and I would encourage you all to be as well. And so it was about me finding, literally finding my way through a bit of a tunnel, and feeling and going for it and and failing all the time. And that didn't matter that was part of the journey. And how have I used that in the professional world? same sort of thing is I have a lot of fun doing what I do. I really do. I thoroughly enjoy what I do. And I think that comes across when I'm working, Steve, and I think that comes across in auditions. And and I don't tend to focus I tend to focus on being an actor. I'm not a visually, Unknown Speaker 1:08:47 I'm not Unknown Speaker 1:08:47 this might be controversial. I'm not a visually impaired actor. I'm an actor, and I'm visually impaired. So I would encourage you to stand as actors and creatives first. That's that's probably what I would say stay hope that Unknown Speaker 1:09:02 heard. Yeah. I think that's great. And I think there's a lot to be said for doggedness, actually, Unknown Speaker 1:09:07 yeah, me to Unknown Speaker 1:09:08 do this last one question. We've got loads more questions, or questions that we don't answer will be available on our website after this. And we will be sending it to participants. So just to let you know, if I haven't, we haven't asked your question. Don't worry, your questions will be answered. But the last question or else I'll get, I'll get told off for overrunning is, how do you find out what is going on in your area when it comes to getting creatively active, particularly places that are vi friendly? Unknown Speaker 1:09:41 I'm not sure how just Unknown Speaker 1:09:43 I literally just Google those words, by creative, creatively, creative, creative stuff for visually impaired people, like change the wording around but I literally just Google things like that and then things will pop But just ask people, or find companies that work with disabled people and check out their websites and see what they're doing. But yeah, Google and ask people, Unknown Speaker 1:10:13 I've got one, I'm going to kind of set everyone to challenge it's listening to the call. And this one's specially for Elizabeth as well, who I need to have a conversation with about this. Obviously, we turn to online. So, you know, it's not just about getting involved in stuff in the local area, which is great. But often, we can do that, on a bigger scale worldwide. And I'm the team that I'm lucky enough to be working with in America, this year are putting on an event in November, which is going to be online, called blind dance. And blind dance is the world's first film festival, for visually impaired and blind filmmakers. Now, anyone can get involved, you don't need to be a professional filmmaker, we all have cameras in our mobile phones. And all you got to do is make a short film about anything that you want to ask me about visual impairment. It can be about anything, it can be about your story, your life. And if anyone wants to get involved, you can do that you can submit a film and it will be shown at the Film Festival, which is going to be taking place in America in November this year. And all you need to do is go to blind dance.org. That's blind dance.org. And if anyone wants to message me, I can give you more details as well. But yeah, I'm gonna set anyone a challenge to make a short film a short piece about anything. Also, we're doing this thing at the moment called the blind dance challenge, where on the blind dance page on Facebook, you can do a dance to any piece of music and get someone to audio describe your dance, or you can audio describe what you're doing yourself and post it and there's gonna be prizes of catch, and lots of different prizes on there as well. And we've got some big sponsors that the sponsorships in as well. So we're really good prizes, but check out blind dance.org. And I'd love to see some of you guys making little pieces of film for that. But it's going to be amazing, Unknown Speaker 1:12:15 incredible fun. Unknown Speaker 1:12:23 I think that's all for the questions then. And as I say, we will get round to sending through any that I've been asked that we haven't managed to pose to the panellists today. So over to you. Unknown Speaker 1:12:35 Thanks, Penny, that was great to get to get so many questions there. And thanks, everyone's personal questions, and thanks to the panel for a kind of giving really inspirational answers to that. So now we're going to move on to the final part of our session, which I'm really excited about. This is something for everyone to get involved in. So the final part of our event today is a short relaxation, mobilisation and breathwork session delivered by Claire Miller. Claire is a 520 hour trained yoga instructor and fitness trainer. Claire has lost most of her vision in her right eye as her optic nerve is damaged. And it's also now got a cataract in her left eye. Claire is passionate about sharing her love for yoga, fitness and breath work with everyone regardless of age, health or mobility. In terms of in terms of safety thoughts from Claire, please follow Claire's instructions and your own risk. Please do not move through anything that you think might hurt or does head. Without further ado, I'd like to hand over to Claire Unknown Speaker 1:13:41 very much. Thank you for the lovely introduction. And I must say an inspirational group of people have been talking this evening, it's made me feel very honoured to be part of this community, even though I'm fairly new to joining this amazing group of people. So we're going to begin just by coming into a comfortable seated position. So wherever that is for you, whatever you're sitting on the floor, the chair on a sofa or wherever. And just take a moment just to notice how your breath is feeling. So if you can come to a little bit of stillness within the body. If you have any visual at all, maybe you want to close your eyes and try to bring your focus internally. started really deepen your breath. Taking a nice, big inhale. Nice big and long exhale. See how your breath is feeling this evening. Just a few moments, just simply breathing. Just appreciating the quiet appreciate Hearing your own breath. We're going to start by taking some simple movements in the neck and head. So we can take the chin down towards the chest. And then take a head, the chin comes from side to side, taking it to one shoulder, down to the centre and to the other shoulder. Again, make the movement nice and slow, nice and gentle. Just moving the head gently from side to side, just noticing the muscles of the neck. When take your head back up to centre will take the right ear over towards the right shoulder, head comes back to centre, we take the head towards the left shoulder. So again, we're just moving the head gently from side to side. Again, just seeing how the neck is feeling. nice gentle movements. And the head comes back up to its central position. Bring the chin down to the chest again, head comes back up and then we take the head very slowly and gently back. Back to centre slowly forward to just moving the head in all the accesses. Taking the head back. Taking the head back up. One more time we take the head forward, back up and come back to your breath. We're going to start by taking some movements into our shoulders to bring your hands onto the front of your shoulders. So your elbows point forward. And then we take the elbows out towards the sides and around to the back to make these movements nice and big. So we're just mobilising the shoulders. So you can bring the elbows forward to touch the elbows, take the elbows all the way to the side and bring them all the way back. So a few nice big movements just waking up shoulder joints. And then take the shoulders in the opposite direction. Elbows come back to the sides and thoughts. Again, just seeing how the shoulders are feeling. And then from here, we're going to take, keep the right hand on the top of the shoulder, take the left hand under your right arm on the top of the arm tricep area, we take the arm out, we bring the hand forward, I'm going to sweep the hand forward and comes forward back to the shoulder and then hand comes around and the other direction. We're circling the hand sweeping the arm rounds. And then move the arm in the opposite direction, taking the hand back to the shoulder to the side and forward. Then we drop the right arm down we take the left hand back to the top of the shoulder, right hand comes on to the left tricep bottom of the arm and the right left. Sorry that left hand sweeps forward. Nice big circle. This just wakes up your elbow joints as to front of your shoulder and take your hand back opposite direction sweeping on routes. Unknown Speaker 1:17:55 And again, drop both hands down. We're going to take our arms up in a nice big suite. We take a big inhale, Suite your arms all the way to the ceiling. stretch up nice and tall. And then turn your palms down and bring the arms down by the side of the body. Again, do this with breath. Take a big inhale to sweep up your arms stretch up nice and tall. And then the heart the pumps turn down we bring the arms back towards the side of the body one more time. Big sweep up, stretch up nice and tall. Stay with the arms up and then keep your right hand up to the ceiling. Take your left hand down to the left side of your body onto the side of your chair or your exams still flow. We stretch up through the right arm. Coming into a side bend, we take the right arm over and just gently stretch the right side of your body and breathe into the right side of your ribcage. Take a big inhale to stretch the right arm back up. Bring the left arm up to meet it. Take the right hand down to the side of the body. Big inhale into the left arm. Again come into a nice side bend to see if you can really lengthen the left side of your body and breathe into it. arms come back up to centre. Keep the arms up. Interlace your hands and turn your interlace palms up and again stretch up so you can open your armpits. Nice big stretch. And then bring your hands forward. Turn your palms towards your face. And then pull your hands forward. If you can gently around the spine, maybe the head drops down. One more time we take it up we stretch up nice and tall stretching up the body. Again has come forward, palms turn towards the face, pull the hands forward. Release the arms down beside you. Now take the hands behind you. See if you can get a grip of the fingers, maybe one finger and then we're going to inhale to open the chest, pulling the hands away from the back of the body briefie she's been a nice stretch across the front of your chest. And then we release the arms. Take them down by the side of your body, make sure you're nice and comfortable. And then we're going to start to gently turn the body around from side to side to your moving arms from side to side. And we're just twisting the spine. So we can take the sweet with the arms a bit bigger. If you want to, you can start to take one hand to one shoulder, so opposite hand comes to opposite shoulder. And we're just twisting our spines round from side to side. And then next time you come over towards the right side, take your left hand to your right thigh, when your right hand and take it behind your back. Take an inhale to straighten your spine and see if you can turn your right shoulder around. So we're just twisting the spine and take some nice big breaths here to really try and use your right shoulder. bring yourself back to centre. Again started to swing the arms from side to side is going to warn the spine and just move the spine and then again come to the left. Take your right hand onto your left side. When your left hand behind you to your back, straighten up and then turn to the left using your left shoulder to turn and bring yourself back to centre. And now we're going to move into our fingers and wrists state your arms in front of you make a gentle fist with your hands. It's not a third call your risks. So oh nice big circles really great for people that type a lot on computers or phones, circle the rest in the opposite direction I and then we stretch the thing as wide as possible. And then we close the fest. We stretch the fingers really what we close. Now let's speed up this movement. Just wake up your fingers. Great if you've got arthritis, stretching, close opening, closing. If your hands a big shake, release your hand. Okay, we're going to come back in to the spine, have your hands on top of your thighs. And then we gently just drop your head down and see if you can round your spine by pulling your belly belly gently back. And then we push the hands into the thighs and we lift the chest. So we drop the belly back. So we're rounding the spine. And then we lift the chest up. We're gonna do this a few times. So you come up, maybe Lift your head up, drop the spine back, rounding and then lifting the chest. So we're just moving the spine in all the directions, dropping back. Lifting up to two more, we dropped the bus spine back really around the spine, pull the belly in, hands come back and we lift the chest. Unknown Speaker 1:22:52 Then take yourself back to your central seated position. We're going to come back it's a short session into the neck. So have your hands into the lap by the size of the body what feels right. Let's take a big inhale, we're going to lift the shoulders up towards the ears. And then drop the shoulders down. We take a big inhale again, lift the shoulders right to the ears. And then see if you can roll your shoulder blades back. Again, we do again we lift up the shoulders to the ears, involve your arms and roll your shoulders back. We take one more, we lift the shoulders right to the ears. We roll the shoulder blades all the way back. Now drop your hands gently into your lap. We're going to come back to working the neck starts to move your head around in a very big and gentle circle. Chin comes down to the chest out to the side and up to the centre. So nice, big, gentle movements but feeling the whole of the neck and the head is moving. And then change the direction of the circle of the head taking the head gently round. Again, nice, big a gentle movement. Bring your head back to a central position. If you notice the shoulders crept up, drop them down once again. And then take your right ear over towards your right shoulder. Take some big breaths and breathe into the left side of your neck. Maybe it feels nice just to open and close your mouth. Just release your jaw muscles. Keep the head over towards the right. And then move your chin very slowly down towards your right shoulder. moving very slowly and gently coming as far towards the right shoulder as you are able and then breathe into that super tight bit at the back of your neck. Bring the chin slowly down towards the chest, tuck it in. If you can feel the stretch out the back of your neck again Bring the head gently back up to centre. Notice the shoulders, maybe you need to drop them down again. Then drop the left ear over towards the left shoulder. Again, breathe into the right side of your neck. Again, maybe move your face, move your mouth, relax your jaw. And slowly take your chin on the down towards the direction of your left shoulder will slow movement. When it comes to the all the way to the shoulder, or somewhere near there, breathe into this super tight bit in the back of the neck. Once again, take your chin slowly down to your chest, breathing into the back of the neck. Bring your head back up and then gently take your head back very slowly, very gently, until you feel a stretch in the front of your neck. And then because nobody's watching apart from watching me, stretch your face really wide open and close your mouth. stretch the muscles of your face as much as you can. Maybe take your jaw from side to side, open and close that makes facial muscles. Then gently close your mouth. Bring your head back to a central position. We're just going to close today's session just by taking a few moments just to focus on the breath. The if movement is something that you don't do very often just notice how these little movements, little bit of gentle movement can really open the body. Allow the mind to focus on something completely different. Now take your attention into your breath, hearing the sound of your nice, deep inhales exhales and see if you can for this last moment, to start to lengthen and deepen your breaths. If you can calm your body and your mind by really lengthening your breaths, Unknown Speaker 1:27:14 taking this lovely moment just to listen to the sound of your own breath. appreciating your body for everything it allows you to do. I will say thank you very much for allowing me to guide you through this very gentle session. Thank you very much. Unknown Speaker 1:27:40 Thanks, Claire, that was absolutely fabulous. I feel wonderful now. And so just before we say goodbye, you might remember we did a poll at the beginning of the end of the session. And so I've just wanted to give you the results of that just as a reminder. And what are the barriers to participation in sport arts, social and wellbeing activities. So to be honest, is with the results have been changing throughout the session. And we've kind of got some final numbers. And so all three have confidence to part finding out about the events and transport to and from the events or 40%. And then finally, the cost of activities is at 20%. And so I think you know we can we can see a good, a good kind of understanding of what the barriers are there. And we'll be adding feedback to this. But they will be running throughout June. And thank you again for taking part. So we've come to the end of today's session. And I for one have really enjoyed, really enjoyed it. And as I hope you all have to. I would like to thank you all for coming to the session we're on today. I would also like to thank our guests, Dave, adder, Laura, Elizabeth, Shiraz and Claire, I'm sure you all agree. You've given us a great insight into the experiences within the sport, leisure and arts industries. I am sure they have inspired you to become creatively active. I hope you'll be able to join us soon when we expect to be able to put on an actual event in person. And but for now, thank you and stay safe. Thanks, everyone. Unknown Speaker 1:29:30 Thank you Take care everybody. Unknown Speaker 1:29:34 Take care everyone. Unknown Speaker 1:29:35 Bye. Unknown Speaker 1:29:37 Thank you. Unknown Speaker 1:29:37 Thank you Transcribed by https://otter.ai