Okay, so it's recording now and it's live on Facebook. So yes, welcome. Welcome everybody, to the Tyne and Wear Sight Loss Council's first webinar. My name is Eamonn Dunne, and I'm the Engagement Manager for Thomas Pocklington Trust for the Northeast. And Firstly, thank you, everybody who's come along tonight for giving up your time, most appreciate it. So we could have chosen any number of topics to discuss for our first webinar. But the members of the Sight Loss Council thought that getting back out there and taking part in sport and fitness was it was a real priority, given the mental physical and social benefits of it, especially after the year or so that we've just had. And so yeah, so that's what we're going to talk about tonight, we're going to talk about access to inclusive sport in Tyne and Wear  and the wider Northeast. So first, a little bit about Sight Loss Councils. For those of you who don't know what they are. sight loss councils are led by blind and partially sighted members and funded by the charity Thomas Pocklington Trust, they advocate the needs of visual impaired people in our communities, and work to improve access to goods and services that are local and national level. And our mission is to empower blind and partially sighted people to drive real change in their local communities. We still have vacancies for our time and where Sight Loss Council so there's anyone out there who feels they want to join us get in touch via our website, which is sight loss councils.org.uk. And for your career piano in the background is my solomos piano lesson. So please ignore it or sing along with it or wherever might not be able to hear it. Yeah, so that's, that's what sight loss councils are about. Though there are 10 Sight Loss Councils currently around the country. And they they're in places from Southwest Southeast London Midlands to Northwest and Yorkshire and Humberside. So we've covered quite a lot of the country already. And you'll be hearing from some of our cycles council members in town aware this evening. So on the webinar, so just to kind of give you some context, our good friends rnap produce some very useful statistics around accessibility to sport and fitness and that kind of thing. So it can be called before COVID. They estimated that about half of blind and partially sighted people are inactive compared to about 20% for non disabled people. And two thirds of visually impaired people want to be more active. So that's that's quite a significant amount of people. So this evening, we've got a packed agenda for you. And we're going to be hearing from a number of amazing people, starting with Lee Cawkwell, who is one of our founding site loss council members. And he is going to be talking about how he established his entire football team and also about the power of team sports to change lives. Then we're going to hear from Ashley Rowe from Newcastle United Foundation. Ashley is going to be talking about the health and well being benefits of participation in sport and fitness, as well as opportunities that Newcastle United Foundation has to offer so people can get involved. Thirdly, we'll be hearing from Bikram Brown, who was another of our sight loss council members. Bikram is going to talk about his experience of getting involved in sports at university. And a little bit about the quality law as it relates to sport and fitness. So I'm just gonna text him one more time we got another meeting we'll deal with that. Then we're going to hear from Mandy black Manndy's and leisure and well being team leader for North Tyneside Council, and she'll be telling us how her services are working towards making their centers and services more accessible. Next, we're going to hear from Martin Simcox, Martin's the CEO of a charity called Metro Blind Spots, which are a partner of Pocklington Trust, Martin's working on some online resources for visual impairment awareness. And that change is going to be available for sports and leisure Center staff to make to help make those centers more accessible, and to help make them feel more comfortable when welcoming people into their centers. Then we're going to hear from from Karen, Karen Maleltt. And Karen is going to tell us how she first got into running and what it's done to change her life. Then we're going to hear from Darren and Nadine, who's going to be talking about Durham VI Cricket. And finally, we're gonna hear from Wendy and Graham, who we're going to talk about the Northeast visually impaired tennis court. So a packed agenda and lots of people to get through. So be very interesting. Sure. Following our panel, we're going to be taking questions. So we've had some questions submitted before this, but if you have any questions, please submit them via the chat facility. And we will deal with those after all the speakers have spoken as well as we've had previously submitted. But before we actually get going with the speakers, can we just do a little poll so we can better understand the barriers faced by blind or partially sighted people are getting involved in sport and fitness. So an idea because you bring up the poll, please. Data poll is going to ask sort of questions about The barriers of participation. So it's just come up now. Anyone who can't see the poll has trouble with it, you can sort of let me know afterwards stuff is it's something we're particularly going to focus on the barriers. And I'm trying to sort of figure out how together we can get around those barriers. So the first one is the barriers that we've put this one is probably most important to you, if you can choose that one, the one that most effective. So the first one is knowing what's available and where it's on. Secondly, getting there and transport. Secondly, so Thirdly, cost. And then fourthly, accessibility. Now, that's actual accessibility or the perception of how accessible something is. And then finally, self confidence. So choose whichever one of those is the kind of biggest thing that gets in the way there may be more than one, but just pick the one that's most, most difficult for you. And we will share the results of the poll at the end. Okay, so that's my introduction over with so without further ado, can I pass over to my first panel member, which is Lee Cawkwell Lee over to you. I think you're still on mute.  Right? Okay. I've got it. Yep. Yep, go ahead. Yeah, em, as you know, like, I'm problems with the computer assemble into the phone. So can you see me Okay, yeah. Yeah, can see you fine. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yes, so, it's the conservatory that me dad built. Yeah, okay. Right. Okay, so I'll crack on. Okay. So, hello, everybody, and thanks for attending this Thomas Pocklington event. My name is Lee Cornwell, I am a registered blind person, a member of the Sight Loss Council and for a number of years, I was working as one of the social workers for blind or partially sighted people. I was Newcastle City Council. So I have been asked to speak about my experiences with the socios visually impaired Football Club, which was the first representative visually impaired football club from the Northeast participating in the National League. Just before that, I just want to say a little bit in terms of the psychological impact through my personal experience, my work and, and studies, what I've learned is that it's both the social and psychological impact of sight loss, it can be for a number of people, many visually impaired people It can be as great an impediment or barrier to, you know, to social life opportunities as the actual practical and functional aspects of sight loss. For some people losing sight, like they can undergo the grieving process and go through stages of loss such as shock and denial and depression, etc. Even those who are congenitally visually impaired, there could be a whole host of societal barriers. Some of you may have hit a social model of disability where it includes things such as the built environment, policies and procedures, media representations and issues around attitudes and awareness that can be barriers and therefore impact upon the emotional and psychological well being. So I'll come back to that once Just tell me the short story in terms of football club. So yeah, I was I was registered playing when I was 20. And later in the year, I went to the Royal National College for blind people in Hereford, and it was there. When I was doing a computer programming course I discovered that there was the National Football League for partially sighted people with two divisions and not participate in that league for one of the college teams playing in venues such as Birmingham, London, and Hereford and had an absolutely fantastic time in terms of being part of that team and you know, the physical activity and the social benefits. So I was there a year and I returned to the Northeast. But unfortunately, I discovered that the most northern team in the National League was one from Leeds, Waitrose of Leeds and so that motivated me, along with having a cousin with the same condition as me it was a rather good footballer to set up a team for this area. And and so that was the beginning of the socios visually impaired football club. And I was involved as player secretary and organiser for 17 years. So in my time cinema I saw over 30 lads play for our team or sometimes two teams or sometimes suddenly in a big team. And we had the a reasonable amount of success with promotions and Cup finals playing across England and, and Dublin, the Irish games. And we even had players who went on to play for the England team played in venues such as Barcelona and Rome against other international teams. But I think a key point that I would want to make, you know, is that, I think what I learned is that it was much more about just the sport and the playing of football. And I think it all hit home to me, probably at the end of the first season. We had a presentation at a venue called the Sundale on the coast, on the coast of Seychelles Were Yeah, what a really good turnout. I think we had over 160 people. And it was also attended by the mayor of South Tyneside, who, actually she happened to be registered blind as well. And the guys went up to get the trophy for winning promotion and Player of the Year and top scorer. And then at the end, my name is called out and it turned out the lads had sort of done a bit of a collection and got me a Newcastle United shirt, which was saved by all the squad and, and all of a sudden, I realised had to say a few words. And I think it all sort of came together in the mind's eye in terms of what it was about, because yes, it was about disability and great equity in terms of visually impaired people from Tyneside and the Northeast, being able to participate in football in the National League. But it was about that much more, I think was a journey that all the lads went on together that I don't think any of us will ever forget, it was about self discovery and, and, and growth in terms of, you know, psychologically, self confidence, self esteem, obviously, about participation and inclusion. But yeah, it was it was, for me, it was like, it was a foundation of a springboard where I saw, you know, many, many people like moving on, whether it be the confidence to move on to relationships to get married, education, employment, I think there would have been about eight of the last two, through the peer support and the growth of self confidence and the sharing of information, learned how they could actually go to university and then went on to get degrees and are now working as professionals. So I think, Well, yeah, apart from possibly my children, it's one of the proudest achievements. And what I would like to say is that, obviously, the football club, it was a specialist club, an organisation for visually impaired people. But what I think one of the key points I want to make is that the benefits that those guys sort of gained in terms of physical and psychological well being, I think, what want to achieve and this, hopefully, this is the beginning of a journey together, where we can look at the main stream, whether it be gyms, pools, fitness classes, in terms of whether it be about awareness or policy procedure, where the people of Tyne and Wear, who are blind or partially sighted can hopefully, you know, gain greater confidence and access these facilities. And again, therefore gain those physical and psychological benefits. So basically, that was me trying to get that in five minutes, or I did that as well. Yeah. So, as Eamonn said, I'd be happy to take any questions at the end. Thank you. Thanks, Steve. That's great. Really good to hear from you. So next, we've got Ashley Rowe from Newcastle United Foundation. Ashley, over to you now she's got to go after this, haven't you actually, because you've got other commitments. So any questions for Ashley, we can put her after this meeting because she won't have time to stay to the end. Thank you very much for coming. So thank you for having me here today. So my name is Ashley Lowe, and I'm at the health and wellbeing manager at the Newcastle United foundation. So I've just come today to do a quick chat with you about kind of the physical and mental benefits to taking part in sport and Exercise. So I just thought I would quickly kind of discuss who the Newcastle United Foundation are because I'm aware that people may not may not have heard of us. So we are the charity arm of Newcastle United Football Club. We work with over 60,000 people a year in a local community. We've got programs available from for young children aged from five, all the way up to older adults. So you could come on one of our programs throughout the full life course. What we do is we use the power of the Newcastle United badge to inspire and engage how to reach people. So we use the love of football in the region to get people to come to our programs that may not normally engage in health interventions. And through these programs, we encourage learning we support employability and we promote healthy lifestyles for people in the region. So the foundation we work in Newcastle gates at North Tyneside, and all the way up into Northumberland as well. So, first of all, let's have a little chat about some of the physical activity and benefits that we can get as adults. So you might not know that we should actually be doing about 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. So moderate exercise can be going for a walk, riding a bike or swimming, something that gets the heart rate up just a little bit, and you can feel you've got increased freedom, or we can do just over an hour, so 75 minutes of vigorous exercise. So that would be running, playing sport or walking up the stairs. So just bear in mind, so the reason that we should take aerobic exercise like that, so something that gets the heart rate up gets our breathing increases, because it really does benefit your physical health, it's going to reduce your chance of getting diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and joint and back pain, it reduces your risk of getting some cancers as well. And so it's just something to bear in mind that we should be looking to build up to do in about 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise. Now, some of you might be sat there thinking like how on earth am I going to fit that much exercise into my life, but something is better than nothing. So I always advise that you do things in 10 minute increments. So I would imagine most of us do have 10 minutes in our day to get ourselves a tiny little bit out of breath, whether that's doing some work out in the house, go for a walk around the block, or just anything that you can think of, it's going to get that heart rate, heart pump, and get the blood pumping around the body, because it's really going to benefit your health and extend your life. So something else that we should consider is just sitting down less, I think, especially now a lot of us are probably working from home will can be very guilty of sitting down a lot. So we may sit and like drive to the shops might sit and watch the telly or might sit at computers all day, we really try and break up that sit in time because sitting down is really bad for us. So we want to be having breaks from our computer. And having breaks from the TV and getting up and moving moving the body. We'll also want to look at how we can build strength. So we need to keep our muscles strong, keeping your muscles strong will reduce your chance of getting pains as you as you age, but it also keeps your bones strong. Now, if we don't have strong bones, they're much more likely to break as we get older, which obviously is not a good thing. So the ways that we can build our strength up is by doing weight based exercises. By doing yoga, have we think about day to day activities, carrying shopping bags, things like that, that can help to build a strengthen the muscles. If you're a little bit unsure where to start, I always advise going on YouTube, if that's accessible for you, because there's a wide range of free videos on there that can teach the most beginner exerciser, and it's free and it's in the comfort of your own home, then the final thing that we should do is try and improve our balance. If we improve our balance, we're going to reduce our chance of falls. And obviously, if we fall as we age, that means that we're more likely to break our bones. And again, obviously, no one wants that. So ways that we can improve our balance are by dancing. And so we can do that in the house, you know, no need to be watching. We can do Tai Chi, and or we can play sports such as balls, and or walking football, which is something that will offer at the foundation. So we want to introduce strength building and balance exercises about twice a week. So yeah, so just wanted to kind of run all that past year and just let you know that physical activity, obviously, we know that it's good for us. But there's a wide range of things that we should be doing and that we can do. And it's just about thinking what suits you, you know, going for a run isn't going to be suitable for everybody. But getting up and going for a little walk maybe or going for a swim. So it's just trying to think what do you enjoy doing? What have you enjoyed doing in the past, and think how you can fit more of that into your week, I always advise putting your exercise in your diary like you wouldn't meet in and then you're much more likely to do it and not put it off. Okay, so the next thing we're going to discuss is why exercise can really boost your mental well being. So you may be aware that if you exercise, it reduces your stress levels. So even getting yourself out and about for a walk in if you're feeling a little bit stressed, overwhelmed, but anxious, can really help to reduce those those stress levels. It's going to release endorphins. So endorphins feel good chemicals that release in your brain when you do exercise. So that's kind of like the the way that Mother Nature tries to encourage you to keep on exercise. And by releasing all these feel-good chemicals, you're going to increase your energy levels. So it might seem a bit counterproductive going out burning energy, because you'll think, Oh, well that'll take me out. But actually it's really good for giving you energy. And then the side effect of that is that you're going to sleep better at nighttime. So what we don't want to do is exercise just before we go to bed. But you know, we want to have at least a good couple of hours beforehand. But if you are feeling a little bit tired in the afternoon, getting yourself out doing some exercise is really going to boost your energy levels. Exercise is also another way of increasing your chance of socialising with people and going for a walk with your dog meeting other dog walkers and taking part in sport and you know you're going to meet other like minded people. So you've got that chance to socialise which is really good for your well being as well. So getting yourself out and about outdoors has been proven to improve mental health overall. So if we can go for a walk and be out and about in nature in the fresh air, it's going to give not only your physical health boost, but your mental health as well. And a lot of exercises can be totally free. So if cost is an issue, there's, you know, walk, having a walk is totally free cycling, obviously, you need a bike. But there's lots of ways we just need to get creative. So it doesn't have to be expensive, and you know, it can be quite cheap. commuting to work can be something that we could do. So you kind of kill two birds with one stone in that way. But exercise can also encourage you to change other unhealthy habits. So if we smoke, drink too much wine or eat too much junk food, if we're trying to go on a bit of a health kick, then we're much more likely to adopt other healthy behaviors alongside the exercise. And overall, it's going to boost your self esteem and make you feel good. So nobody has done a workout that they have regretted, that's my little go to kind of phrase, you only regret the workout that you don't do. So how many times have you plan to do something you've not done it, you feel worse. But if you've gone out and you've done some exercise for the day, you always will feel bad. So it's just something to bear in mind and try and give you that boost to go out and be active. So that was just kind of a little rundown of the physical and mental health benefits to doing some sport. So I just wanted to let you know of some opportunities at the Newcastle United foundation that you might be interested in. So when it comes to mental health, we've got a campaign running at the moment called the Big Game Changer Campaign. So some of you may have heard of it. So basically, the Big Game Changer campaign, it encourages people in our region to talk openly about mental health. Unfortunately, the Northeast has actually got one of the highest rates of suicide nationally. And we know that 75% of suicides are men, but also that suicides are massively on the increase for young females under 25. And this needs to change. Suicide is totally preventable, it doesn't need to happen. But it is a sad fact that it is very, it's happening a lot and a lot more. But by talking about things, we can kind of, you know, hope to reduce these rates. So we want to encourage people to if you are struggling, speak up. So whether that is to someone that you are close with, like a family member or a friend, it might be someone from the Sight Loss Council, it could be your GP. Or you could use one of the online services that are free. There's plenty of like text services and online services at the moment where you can get in touch ring, the Samaritans really do encourage it. Because once you speak up about your struggles, it lifts that burden just to touch to keep you keep you going while she gets the help that you need. So we're encouraging people to speak up if you're struggling, but also to look out for your friends and family members. If one of your friends and family members has not been acting quite like themselves, or you've just got a little bit of a gut instinct, that there's something not quite right. Ask them how they are, as British people were always say, oh, how are you? Yep, fine. But that's neither agree in rather than inquiring about someone's wellbeing. So we'll always encourage you to ask twice. So if you are a little bit worried about someone, you know, ask them how they are. If they say I'm fine, we would advise that you say, Are you sure because you're not receiving that yourself. I'm here to talk if you need it, that can be the kind of the thing that someone needs to open up. So check in on people, ask them how they are and speak up yourself if you're struggling. Now, if you want to know more about the be a game changer campaign, please Google it, or I can pop a link in the chat box. And we've got loads of free resources for individuals and organisations. So we have things like posters, leaflets. And we've made videos with some fans talking about their mental health and the caption of Newcastle United women, we do events. So we could come to an organization or a workplace, we could put on a walk and football tournament specific to the needs of the organisation. And we use that as a tool to chat about mental health they're really comfortable with and all of our support is free. We also do online workshops as well. So we can deliver a mental wellbeing workshop or workshop on sleep and stress. So if anyone's interested, please do get in touch and I can let you know more about all of that. Now, you might be interested in is our walking football sessions. So walking football is kind of what it says on the tin, it's football with without the running, although a lot of our participants will try to run so it's kind of trying to manage that can be a little bit difficult. Some venues, it's for over 50s. And we've got eight or nine venues set up at the moment across Newcastle, North Tyneside and Gateshead, totally free. And we do have participants that attend that are visually impaired. So this might be something that you're interested in attendance. So please do get in touch. And then the other thing that we're doing the session we're running that might be of interest is blind football. So we do run a weekly blind football session and that is for children and young people aged between five and 16. So again, you might know someone and that might be interested in that. So I've kind of just did a really, really Whistle Stop tour of some of the programs that we have, and you can Google in Qatar united foundation and have a look at our website, or if you just want to know a little bit more about them, when I've talked about, please do email me and I can pick up the phone and give you a call and chat more. So I hope that was that was useful and helpful. And as Amy said, I do have some childcare issues. As you can see, I'm currently starting a nursery. And but yeah, so I'll be more than happy to answer any questions via email or telephone. That's great. Thanks a lot, Ashley, really good to hear from you. So yeah, people can get in touch with you. If they want to get in touch with you to get in touch with me first. And I can give your contact details up or searching on the web. We can come up with your website quite quickly, I imagine. Thank you. We'll let you go. And yeah, thanks again. Speak soon. Okay. Bye. Right. Next we have Vikram, are you ready to tell us a bit about your experiences of sports at university and a bit about equality law as it relates to sport and fitness? Yes. Good evening, everybody, you're gonna have to forgive me yes or no, we're talking from Newcastle in Birmingham. I attended University. I graduated last year from a university in Sports Science and Coaching. I'm now doing my International Sports Law in a Master's. So what I found when I was at university was part of participation in sports was a struggle for me, because there was no direct disability, accessible sports there. So I joined American football, and applied to friendly and I was told that I couldn't then continue with the sport because not only was I danger to myself, but as a danger to everybody else. For those of you who've watched American football, each quarter, an impact contact sport and can get quite physical. And people can you can get serious injuries from it as well, if you're not careful. So I decided to approach University and say, Oh, she's not really fair. And I was told I could attend the training sessions. And I was more than welcome to training sessions. But I couldn't partake in the games. And I still have to pay in 300 per membership for the year. So I approached University about a mixed disability football team. They said, yeah, that's fine. Put your ideas down. They put me in touch with somebody at the student union or get in contact with them, we put a flier together. And I think there was no there was nobody really attended the opening an event. I don't think the university was too bothered really about that, because it would have been a more of a cost to them. But my thing, what I'm trying to get across is sports participation for people with visual impairment in university, in my experience is a negative for me at the moment. And I look around at good sports participation, provision for visual impairment, but they do have a section for people with visual impairments as well. But I think if universities could team work with external people and groups, organisations, like the team I play for, Northeast Football Club, that could be beneficial for them. And the universities for sports participation. Now I just want to quickly touch on obviously when it comes to gyms and organisations, if you go to firstly Equality Act 2010 and what I didn't realize was all for the university being discriminated against me now what I was doing, they was actually called positive discrimination, which was a positive action, which needs some positive action. So basically, what they did was they give me a reason why that why I couldn't partake in the sports, and in terms of games, and then they tried to do a positive action by helping me do something else. But I didn't know that in the law that that was already in the Discrimination Act, 2010 and it's sections 1.8 and 159. I'll put a link there's a paper there's a report on it. So I'll put the link in the in the chat so people can read the report on the barriers of breaking down of breaking down sports. But also When, when, as you want to talk about a little bit about the gym as well, because when it comes to go to organisations or to gyms, there's not really a lot out there for people with visual impairments, equipment all over the place, sometimes can't use the machines, because you can't see the settings on them and you find a lot of the gyms nowadays, they've got this urban kind of aura about them, you know, minimum lighting and, and things like that. And so if I just go back to the Health and Safety Work Act 1974 Basically, if you go to Section 3, and I'll put a link up in the description, it basically the organisation's not only have they got an obligation to the employees, but an obligation to the people who attend these gyms to make sure that they feel safe, and that they are safe. in, in, in, in the organisation in the venue. And me personally. Also, when I go to gym, I don't feel safe. Because, again, if I'm looking for a certain weight, and I'm picking up I might injure myself, and I feel like the gyms need to do something about this, they need to look at that kind of side and think, well, how can we can we hold specialist classes? Can we get somebody in from the council to come we approach the council and ask them to put somebody in to help people with visual impairments. Because going to the gym, and it's about socialising, participation and building confidence in the gym. And getting out and exercising. So yeah, but I'll put these links in the description, what and also I just want to finally say, you know, what we need to do is coming together as a group, now you need to work in partnership with organisations, whether it be gyms, you know, shoe box, local legislation says whatever, and make sure that they're actually in print implementing these laws, the regulations, rules. And most of all, we want people like ourselves to go to the gyms and feel confident. And participation is the key here because just because you've got a disability doesn't mean that we can't participate in, in certain activities. Yes, there might have to be adapted. But we should all work together in terms of adapting those situations to make life easier, and suitable for everybody. So yeah, if you've got any questions, please let me know at the end, and I'll put the link up in the chat. Thanks, Vikram, it is good to hear your experiences that are not great. Still, it's really important to hear that. Okay, so next we've got Mandy Black, who's a leisure and well-being team leader at North Tyneside Council, Mandy, over to you. Hello there. So and I'll tell you a little bit about my role. And basically, I'm a team leader for active North Tyneside, as well as sport or time size or the differences, we run a number of public health initiatives to get inactive people active. And the other side of my job role is manage some outdoor facilities, including an athletics track, we've got golf, greens, balls, greens, football pictures. And then the third part of my role is what I studied in, which is traditional sports development or working with sports clubs, and to bridge some of the gaps in sport and obviously, inclusion being one of those. Now we've come to a point where we're going through recovery plan for COVID. So it's an ideal, it's been actually really good opportunity for us to look at some of our programs and see where, where we're fall a little bit. And inclusion sport is one of those programs where we know we can do better. And so at the moment when we're looking at what program and seeing how we can make things more inclusive. And we'll provide a number of programs Funny enough, it's some of the stuff actually was talking about around the health benefits. And we do work in partnership with the Newcastle Football Foundation for some of these projects. And but there's like real health benefits in some of these. We've got like a Buddy body Benefit Program, which is to help weight loss. We've got fitness programs, and we've got run groups, for small groups, and which is great, but how do we make these accessible for everybody and this is kind of like where I am here and why I'm turning you guys to see where where we can learn and adapt things to make these kind of sessions adaptable, and we know that one size doesn't fit all. And and I guess that's That's where we need to learn. And there's no point in just assuming and putting some stuff on for the sake of it, when we don't actually really know what individuals want. So I'm here from a, from a kind of like consultation point of view I want, I want to know what it is that we need to do to make things better to make centers more accessible. Some of work community sessions more accessible. And in principle in terms of sessions overall, when all that it has to be any sport, regardless of who it's for, needs to be the right place at the right time with the right coach at the right cost. So putting that in mind, and we know that transport can can obviously be a barrier for some people. So how can we make things more localised? And on people's doorsteps? And what are their barriers that we face? Or what I was saying, as I think you've just mentioned their background about the lighting and gyms. I mean, it's it's good to know. Like, can can see me you guys come along with us and as in tell us if there's anything in the sentence that we can improve on, because I just think maybe it's that we don't know. And obviously, there's some legislation in place, which we do try to follow. I think we've just had a policy accepted for guide dogs in centre as so I'm not quite sure if that's been ticked off, but it's definitely in the process of that happening. We've just started some other inclusive sessions, and which is a good example of what we've done to adapt things or we've just started a adapted cycling session. So I have a number of adapted cycles and so I mentioned that a tandem bike, we do actually have tandem bike. We have trikes, and we'll have a bikes of every different shape and size. But one of the problems we had that some of our trikes didn't have a low enough step over so some people with more physical disabilities couldn't actually get on the bike. So what we've done is invested in more bikes, to be able to allow a lower step over just to enable them, obviously to use the bikes a little bit more. And so we're looking at some of our wider projects now. And I guess it's about taking things forward. We've had some success. Karen, I think you might have been part of this project. So and Carrie, my colleague has had quite a bit of experience working for Newcastle City Council and needed a little bit of work. And around some of the accessibility interest. She has brought it over and Newcastle at North Tyneside, sorry. So the story is we've had a generic run group, and a lady called Julie and had a visual impairment. And she decided to join our run group. And there was a guide runner available for I think, at this point, and she attended the session, she done really, really well. And actually, she was quite a role model. And Carrie was quite inspired by her story. So she decided to get involved with it. I think Carrie might already have known Karen, at this point. I'm not quite sure. Yeah. So it just goes up partnerships, partnership links really do work. And so anyway, Carrie was inspired again, more and guide runners. And so we could create kind of a run group. And I think Kara might have been involved in this run group. And obviously, the big barrier around that is actually getting guide runners. And some of the stuff that we'll learnt on there. It's not just about putting them on a course because it needs to be a little bit about experience as well, unless less you're actually doing it on a daily basis, some times experience comes more than just attending a course. And obviously due a number of factors. I think lighting at one of the facilities was a problem, which was actually on the verge of sorting and we've got a brand new facility there, they're actually current so that's at Church Hill. Athletics track, we're looking at lighting at the moment when all that was an issue, especially around dark nights. And also COVID came into play so that obviously everything has folded. So we're kind of like trying to get things back on track, but will want to learn and will want to listen and will want to move things forward. So I guess that's why I'm here. I'm, I'm an open book, and I want to hear your ideas. And I want to know what we can do better in North Tyneside. Thanks, Mandy, we'll definitely take you up on that offer. Yeah, now it's really good to, you know, obviously Tyne and Wear covers five local authorities. So, you know, obviously, we were in touch with the others as well. And you seem to be doing kind of quite a lot to to make your centers more accessible. So definitely take you up on that offer. And thanks very much for all that what you just said so yeah, great. Thank you. So actually, on a kind of related subject. Martin Simcox is going to speak next about some resources, Martin spotted the CEO of a charity called Metro Blind Sport. Which is based in London but reaches out across the country through various means through Thomas Pocklington Trust and engagement activity, but Mark is going to talk about some, some online resources that him and colleagues are getting together to help work with local sort of stuff and leisure centers and sports facilities to make them more accessible from the point of view of awareness of staff. So Martin, hi, over to you. Yes, I think a link in terms of what Mandy and I suppose. Sorry, mate, you're breaking off. I can hear you okay. Yes, it did a bit of buffering but I think, yeah, so it's not about now it was just what, I just stop the video just just in case. So that might, that might help. So, my name is Martin, I work for Metro Blind Sport. We are a small charity based in London that provides sport and physical activity opportunities. As well as doing that I work for Thomas Pocklington Trust to sort of help share the messaging around sport and physical activity and, and to help overcome some barriers associated with with sport. And I'm one of those readers about the knowledge of staff that work in in facilities and provide support. So you may or may not know, but there are, there are training programs that support coaches that work with blind or partially sighted people. There are more broadly training courses that help with in terms of understanding disability sport, but nothing that really focuses on those those people that are going to be the first point of contact to those that are going to have the the interaction with people when you go into a leisure center. So what we've been, we've been working on with UK coaching is a sort of a toolbox online toolbox that can be used free of charge by letter Center staff and those sort of front of house people, the receptionists, duty managers, lifeguards, gym instructors, to give them the knowledge that would help enhance the experience of blind or partially sighted people that are going into these facilities. So I just thought I'd perhaps give you a bit of an overview of sort of some of the content that's going to be included. So we're going to give a bit of a background in terms of the the sight loss sector, we are going to talk about the different types of visual impairment. And what we want to do is similar to what Thomas Pocklington created before, but to create a scenario base videos that can be seen by the people that are taking part in the training to understand different types of sight loss, and what that effect is that has when visiting a leisure centre. So we'll kind of make an interactive leisure centre and have people going through that leisure center with different different sight conditions we want to be we want to be clear with people about the type of terminology that that is used so that people are interacting in the right way. And I think for us, we would then provide them with links for further reading. So if they wanted to know more about macular degeneration, then they've got links to go to but what we're trying to get people understand to understand in the first place is that are very much a very different types of sight loss. And the one thing to understand the barriers so for for a number of years now we've been aware of what the barriers are lack of information about opportunities, the perception in terms of what or what people can or cannot do, the lack of quality of our adaptive equipment and and so on. So we've known those bridges by start talking about those in the report seven or eight years ago yet we still haven't really overcome those to make people aware that work in nature centers about these barriers that exist and they can help us to overcome this is gonna be very much a case study case study led so we want we're going to use blind and partially sighted people to deliver some of this content to talk about the benefits to talk about communication, not just in person communication, but also perhaps how how people could communicate externally so that people are aware of what opportunities are available, they are aware that there's good quality revision happening in local leisure centers in within local authorities. So we want to make sure that those people that are perhaps creating some of that communication, are aware of what they, what they can and what they what they can't do, in terms of that, that communication, that we're also including really encouragement in terms of making sure that the website is, is optimised, making sure that there's a call to action that is accessible within other websites of newsletter, or social media content, making sure that there is audio description included, but also in terms of the market marketing materials that are used is to make sure that, you know, they they they use imagery that demonstrates blind or partially sighted people taking part in sport and physical activity at the same time. We want to make sure that we we give people that work and leisure centers and similar venues, information about how to how to guide. So we're going to include that in the content as well. And we're going to include I think was mentioned a moment ago, just about policies on sort of guide dogs and those things. So we're going to make sure that we've got a guide dog user, talking about their experiences, and really how they could be enhanced as well. So we don't just focus on the people, we have to focus on communication, we want to make sure that we're focusing also on the environment. So the leisure centre itself, so we were gonna focus on the positive about what good looks like. So we're like, well have a centre manager highlighting everything that's been done well, sort of a video that's walking through the leisure center with prompts that are there, for the for the person taking part in the training, just about why it is important, that corridor was a clear, a clear of obstructions, why it's important, the doors aren't half open, the importance of lighting was mentioned a moment ago, and also things around signage inside and outside of facility that being positioned in the in the correct way, with good with good color contrast with the right mix of of words, and tactile, tactile information and tactile signage as well. And finally, we're talking a bit about about equipment, and what facilities can do to enhance experiences certainly in the gym, around tactile markings and, and spacing of equipment, and, and so on. And a bit of a brief overview of technology and how that can enhance user's experience. But in summary, we want them to, we want them to go away with with knowledge, and we want them to be able to put that knowledge into practice. So we're going to be changing the people that take use this tool box to do that, to go away from the training to use that model. They've gone into making like a real change to the facility, and the way that they interact, and welcome by the partially sighted people into their facilities. So in terms of timescales, we'll looking for this to be ready, sort of early autumn, with the work being done to create the content over there over the rest of the summer. Um, so I think that's that's it for me, there's some other projects that we're working on the hour, I'll circulate through Eamonn at the right times, but very much, so we'd like to invite Sight Council members from around the UK to be involved in some of the testing of the work that we do work we do. Great, thanks, Martin, that's really good. I think this could be a really useful resource. And the fact that it's available, no free of charge will obviously add value to any work that local stakeholders charities are doing with those centers, anyway, but it just means that it will reach far more people because obviously councils have got limited resources. So something like this is going to be really, really welcome. I think so thanks for that. Right. So no sort of change of pace. If I can use that. Karen is going to come out. It's going to be next and she's going to be talking about how she got into running and how it's kind of enriched your life, I suppose really. So Karen, over to you, everybody. I've been running since 2015. And how I got into running one I was sitting in the Henshaws office one day, and I can't remember how the conversation started. But Philippa Taylor handed me a cup of coffee. And she said, I've signed you up for the Great North Run. And I sort of looked at her and I said, you've signed me up for the Great North Run a current run. And when I say I can't run, what I meant was I literally couldn't run. I couldn't run from one lamppost to another lamppost, and she wanted me to run 13.1 miles. So I thought, all right, okay, I've signed up to do it. So I'll do it. So that's, that's exactly what I did. I started off by running from one lamppost to another, and it was really, really hard. One lamppost became two lampposts. Two lampposts became a kilometer by one kilometer became and as it went on, so I did the Great North Run. And I did it within three hours, and 21 minutes. And that wasn't about time, I had a harder guide runner, who, unfortunately didn't do any training with me, he just said he would run at my speed. And then unfortunately, decided that at the time, but he was gonna kind of walk. However, his walk was my run, because he said he had a long straight up wasn't too bad. So I did the Great North Run. While I was doing my training, and I felt like because my guides on it wasn't running with me, I needed somebody to run with me. So I rocked up after this girl can event that Carrie Nesbitt was running? Mandy, who you've already heard from tonight was at works with Carrie. And I just wrapped up and I just said, I want to run not sure What. And you know, what response I would get. And Carrie being Carrie, she sort of looked at me. And she said, Fine. no problem. I'll guide you. So she did. She guided me brilliantly. I don't know whether she'd ever guided anybody before. But she certainly didn't let on that she hadn't. And we did five kilometers that night. So after I did the Great North Run, I thought well, am I going to continue running. And I sort of dipped out of it a little bit and did a little bit of tennis and did other various things and tried the gym. What like I've heard lots of you talk about tonight that found the gym very inaccessible. And the reason for that was because the people at my gym basically wanted to hold my hand and wouldn't let me be me. And yes, it would have been great to have a little bit of support to set the machines up, but then to be left alone. And to do my own thing, but that wasn't the case, I was told that no way I could be left alone. And I would have to have a chaperone the whole time I was there, which doesn't look great. And so I just didn't go back to the gym. And then I continued running and then decided that I would do the Great North Run again. And run for site service. We are now called vision and hearing support and our work for formerly site service. And I did the Great North Run again, and did it in two hours and 51 minutes with the support of a team of guides on his dad hat, which includes Jocasta Williams, who was hoping to be here this evening to talk about gage running, but she couldn't be. But she guided me brilliantly. We did lots of tenncare events, we did lots of folk events. And now I still continue to run with her. And I'm doing five cares in just over 31 minutes, which has been absolutely brilliant. And if anybody's interested in running, there is a Facebook page called VI guides, and runners and they hook up runners, VI runners and guides in whichever area you're in. And you can do lots of different things like this tracker. And like Mandy mentioned, which I've done, it's fantastic. I can do Park run. Or you can do 10 Kids runs sort of at your own pace in your own area. So it's definitely worth looking at the different alternatives. And if anybody's got any questions, either at the end of this or in the future, it's got my email address and please get in touch. Thanks, Karen. It's great. We've got Philip on the webinar. So she's to be able to hear what you said about Yeah, I think I've probably had the time actually so I can definitely give me a real fair bet. Yeah, it's like if I similarly and to deal with the world of running through, being cajoled into by I was a little back now. I need to get back out there. I've been got lazy lately. Thanks, Karen. So next we're supposed to have Darren and the dean to talk about the tutorial vi correctly. But I think we've got a technical issue with bringing Darren in. Sorry, with bringing Yeah, well, that's totally an idiom anyway, because Dan is an attendee. And so Nadine would anything here Kevin sent you a link to join as a panelist. So what we might do is, you might hear from Wendy and Graham next. And just while you're trying to sort that out, and then we can hopefully hear from from you about the cricket or if not, someone else might go back to the cricket tournament and tell us about or we can certainly send information about afterwards. But let's let's work on that. And so when when Dean Graham, do you want to sort of take it in turns and say a little bit about northeast visually impaired tennis? Why don't you go first, Wendy, because you're on first. Hi, everyone. So basically, impact on us northeast, really impact tennis club. Started in 2010. And that was on the back of me. I was working with action, action, action, there's a time and I've been on IP calls. And I found this sound wall and came back home and wanted to know more. So eventually got hold a song. So long story short, I jumped into a competition in 2010. Not played it just learned as a player came home on the train. Fantastic. Wanted to spread this news. Because in the past, in the northeast, there was no spots that I'd known off. I did do goalball when I was 18, or whatever it was many, many years ago. And I do all my training myself. So consequently, there was no other sports out. So when I found tennis about right, I've got to tell people about this. This is a fantastic thing. I was involved in cricket at the time. And I've got some friends and helped me to set the Northeast brilliant pair tennis club up. And yeah, it's been great ever since. We've got two clubs now in the northeast, tees Valley, some tennis. And we've got three venues in the northeast indoor tennis centers that we can play tennis at, and it's actually fantastic. Growing Mike, you want to jump in. I think when he's done a great job there and quickly go into this sport. What I liked about vi tennis and blind tennis is that it's very much like a normal game of tennis as we know it with three main differences. One being a ball, which for those of the eyes, it's got a raft in it. And the court sizes are slightly smaller. And the number of bounces that players have depends on their AI classification. And what I was going to say I'm not now I think there's just a few points that have come up from different speakers, which I thought were really important and worth talking about. And one of which Mandy said about centers and involvements, and coming and telling us I was manager of a Tennis Center. And I knew very little about disability sport. Until when until I met Wendy and meeting someone with passion enthusiasm with drive, about a sport, in turn the heads of a center manager. And that's how we got tennis started at the Northumberland club in Newcastle. No longer there now, but through the passion of Wendy and the club, I become a chairman of the club for about the last seven years. And it's made a huge difference to my life. And I'm a I'm a sighted person, many of my best friends and our through the VA community. There's some names. It's nice to see here tonight that to lots of those I've seen from tennis and it's not just the Northeast. So thanks, Mandy said it's really long two centers. Show your passion engaged, sometimes just expecting people to know about it. Oh, that'd be nice, too, isn't really the reality. And having that passion and drive and really make a big difference. And we're very much a club within a club now and it's it's got a huge social side to it. Many players have got independence for traveling from being stages for being halfway down the country or in Yorkshire not being able to leave the house to now traveling independently. They want to come to their tennis session, and they want to stay for three or four hours afterwards, chatting with their friends and having a drink or they want to go away for weekends for weekend tournaments. It's made a huge, huge difference because so many people's lives are at stake. to everybody out there, tennis is a hard sport for sighted people. It's incredibly hard for vi or blind people that's that's certainly not a reason to, to not give it a go. So certainly the sessions in Newcastle and Sunderland and in Teesside. We welcome anybody and once again, aim to share our, our links with you. And I'm sure we'd love to answer any of your questions. Great, thanks, Graham, when things are still having trouble getting, getting the demon not your Kevin to do is uh, do you think we'll be able to do or should we? Should we just move on? Do you think we're gonna have to? So Nadine, if you can hear us sorry about that you are you are on the meeting as an attendee, but we don't seem to be able to get you to be able to, to actually speak. So as anyone else on the call involved with with Turin VI, cricket. So I'm not involved now. But I have played I did play many years ago, by the term cricket. And the if you're a few what what I like about sports, at the end of the day, you've got to give different sports a try, literally literally go to see if that suits you. Not every sport suit somebody. You know, I mean, I have bad hip now. So there's no way I could stand around on the field for hours on end playing cricket. So that doesn't suit me now. But to some people it does it. They go there in the league. And I think was it luck scaling Well, before COVID here, they actually won the one of the league cups or something like that. So they're doing really well they are getting more members, and they need more members. And they play with a size three, football with ball bearings inside and out again, bit like tennis, depending on your site possibly depends on bounces captures. B ones are allowed. There some jewelry quite close. And they can have a roller. I think if I remember right, and if things have changed. And there's also the international brine cricket, which plays a small cricket ball. But it's more of a Benji nice swipe action. It's Yeah, I've never could have bought one of the balls because we it's our tennis club. We like to get different balls so that we do different warmup activities. And then you can follow the sound of the ball or whatever. nrma. So yeah, so if you're into cricket, they're invited as well. The thought leaders called is the place to go. Is that all right. Sorry, sorry. I'm just I'm just trying to I'm still trying to get getting that Nadeem on. That's brilliant, actually, considering you came on to talk about tennis? Yeah. Fantastic. Well, what we'll do is if we're not if we're not able to get an idea more, because might be struggling for time, if we do even if we do if someone has put on I think it might be Emma, thank you, if someone's put a link on Twitter and cricket. It's Martin just in the VR cricket is is played with a mixture of blind and partially sighted people playing at the same time. Which is what when he said that the rules are very similar to to predict. And scoring is done in a in a very similar way. So it's very, very close the adoptions really on the ball. And you're playing with the standard cricket bat. So it's it's a very popular sport, there is a there are regional leagues, and then National League and then cup competitions that did occur as well. And you know, people were there there is a there is a Indian cricket team as well that have taught in Australia and India and elsewhere. So a very popular game. And if you are I'll put the link to BC w website, as well as purchase gives a bit more information about the games. Somebody just put that up. So that's fine. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. So what we'll do is Yeah, we'll get information there. So sorry about that. The demons don't know what happened to a technical glitch. But we're kind of booked to the point now where we, we've heard from all our panelists, so we're going to hear from so I'm gonna hand But now, so my colleague and I just Firstly, though, I did hear from someone that they were having trouble putting questions into the chat. So that's not panelist, attendees. Can anybody carry on idea? Can you? Is that right? Or is it something we need to do to fix that? Anyway, but so what we'll do, I'll hand over to Mr. So we've got some questions that were submitted prior to this. So we can go through those while we resolve our w should, those of you who are attending the meeting, he should be able to post questions in the chat. But I think that that might be a bit of a problem. So so I'm gonna go through the questions that we've got already first, and then we'll see where we are after that. Yeah, so So firstly, we've just got a message that's just come in from Katherine fielding, who I'm sure quite a few people might know from goalball. And so Catherine has posted in the q&a box, we are hoping to relaunch the Northeast goalball club soon. So if anyone is interested in being involved, as a player, coach, or volunteer, please get in touch. No previous experiences required, you can just play for fun and fitness or play competitively. In the goalball, UK league. sighted family and friends are also welcome. And Catherine has put her telephone number, and also her email, which I will copy into the chat. So thank you for that, Catherine. So I don't know if we've got anybody who's particularly interested in in playing goalball. But it's quite quite a great as well, yes, a great sport, isn't it? Very fast moving. It's very, it's very good goalball to do with, so if people were not the buffer for no cultural exam, or did goalball with soy in young people. And it was very interesting. Very fun today. Thanks. Thanks, Vikram. And, okay, so, um, I think some of this partially been answered, but where can we find out what vrF friendly activities that are in my local area. So he wants to, he wants to take that one. suggest that people are going to push blind spot websites, and they've got an activity Finder. So British passport encourage providers to put out their bi activity on their on their activity binder. But I very much go to people like Mandy and work with local authorities or the active active partnerships to go to go to their websites as well to find out what activity is available. Thank you very much. Can I can I just jump in? What what I would say as well is if there have an activity, like run or wherever, find a local running club or you know, you know, find a club that they want to join and approach them at the end of the day. And they can only say yes or no. Unfortunately, I mean, I fancy truck trial hockey. And I approach them with no luck to be honest, because I know a lot of hockey clubs have this pan disability thing. But yeah, that one, but so yeah, you've got to approach them really? And then. Because not, you know, they're more than likely. So yes. I mean, I joined a Rowing Club many years. Well, you got to try it. You know, because not British blind spots knows all the answers, unfortunately. When do that, that leads really nicely on to one of the questions that we've been asked, and it's I'd like to go running, where can I find out about getting a guide runner? And I know I think it was Karen posted or what mentioned about guide runners and there's a Facebook group. Yeah. So yeah, we've put that in the in the chat. So anyone have any more ideas about where you can find out about guide running? To be honest, I would literally just put a post on Facebook. And if it gets shared, you know, you'll definitely find someone or if you find out who it is and you want to put them in touch with me. I can certainly help them. I know quite a lot of guide runners now. I've got 10 people who gave me regularly and a lot of them haven't actually done the the official guide running costs and they're absolutely brilliant. So it's entirely up to the VI runner and the guide Whether they want to have somebody official or not. Thanks, thanks. Thanks, Karen. And Martin Martin's put the group in the chat again. So it's a Facebook group. We've got one here, and it's got a football. And so are there any opportunities for women's vi football? So I'm gonna put the outset to everybody jumping in, we had no firm, right? The opportunities gonna be opportunities for vo football. For women. What I will say is, is that you're more than welcome, who have reached for, to come and join us on a Tuesday evening. At Gateshead Stadium, also six coaches, a lady at the minute. And we're not going to be bothered whether you're female or male as long as you're over the age of 80. And if you can get more vi women mu vi involved, then we'll happily try and separate the two teams. But at the moment, we're not gonna we're not too bothered about separate about you whether you're female, or male. It might change for the competition. I'm not too sure it shouldn't do. But we're not reached that stage at this moment in time. But if you want to call for participation and enjoyment, what we're currently doing at the minute because we did start last year because of Colver. Our fitness has just gone right down and participation numbers have gone down as well. So we're trying to build all that back up before we start to engage in leagues and tournament's. So, Monday, Tuesday evenings five to six gacha stadium subs of three pounds you're more than welcome. It's doing website sorry, Bikram anything Facebook group. I've got a an email for somebody. If anybody needs an email to contact that contact me. If you and also this, and remember last night, my name's Andrew, he works the eBay, shirt exchange auction room boy during that fight at the minute. So yeah. And shortly, you cannot just add something, you know, all these things that you've got in the chat. And I'm is impossible that they can all be put in an email totaled, groups show it's easy for people to access them. Or ask them what's there? No, no, no, we'll capture all of this. And we can send, we can send all these links out to people in whatever format they want them in. So just in an email or in a Word document has links or I'll talk to I'll talk to Kevin about that and about making them as accessible as possible. But no, because there's quite a lot in there and I'm actually going to add one that is Nadeem can't get on to speak. Nadeem sent me one just just before the meeting, which was quite useful called vi sport ne which I hadn't heard of before. The link is in the chat and will be sent around. But I think it's still in development. It's got a lot of sports in the northeast and random swimming. And it's got swim for northeast. And this is places you can do. I don't know whether they're all particularly accessible or just general ones. But I have a look at that. And see that looks quite good. This specific to the northeast as well. So thanks, Nadine, for that. Nonetheless, this is quite good that you mentioned about swimming, because someone's actually find it's not really a question. It's more of a statement. So they said that they'd like to go swimming again. But they're not sure if they feel safe due to COVID. So I don't I don't know if anyone else's has actually been swimming. Since the pools have reopened. And how people have found that at all. I can just add a little bit in there. And I'm not from indoor leisure. But I do know a little bit about the pools from working there in the past. And actually being in a swimming pool is probably one of the safest places to be in terms of COVID because of the chlorine that's put in the water kills the bacteria and the temperature at the pool also helps. And the the bits to be aware about are the changing rooms. And but all the staff and particularly in any site that is COVID safe have to go through a strict cleaning regime to be able to make sure that the change rooms are cleaned. That space is provided between each of the changing room showers and even light coming in. I think there's a booking system in particular for for some of our swimming pools. And I think that's probably the same across all sites me And so they'll only allow a certain number of people in the pools out at one time and it is booking system. And then there's a little bit of time allocated to be able to clean the change rooms after between each setting, if you want to call it that. And so the center's won't open unless they've got a COVID safe risk assessment in place. That is pretty much thora and ticked off following the guidelines set by like the ngbs in the governing body. So I don't know if that helps. I don't know, does it because I think that now to reassure people, because I think there's a lot of misinformation, as well, a lot of uncertainty. And I think if we can give people the facts about what you're doing to make places safe, and actually Yes, you say, You're safer in the pool, and you probably restaurant or somewhere else. So that's really good to know. Thanks. Thanks, Mandy. Sorry, can I just say, Well, people have asked about different sports like volleyball and football and cricket and stuff. And Philip Taylor actually organized an event where there was different sports, like there was tennis and all sorts of different things went on. And it'd be really good if something like that could be organized again. So that goalball, cricket VI, tennis and so get more members who are vi involved in them, because people just don't know whether they're going to enjoy something or not. taster session. Okay. Can I just say Karen funny enough? I'm actually involved in something with the help of British blind spots, rice Smith from London, Martin, you know, we've been asked to try and get some, we've been asked to try and put an athletics competition on in the northeast, right. So before COVID hit, we work on to organize a have a good God day, which obviously, that had to be canceled. So we were going to have spots, and it was going to be said gates and stadium. So we're gonna have the indoor athletics, track, tennis, cricket, football, gold ball. And we're limited on spot because of the length. And number of people that would be wanting to do different smart, unfortunately, would maybe try more. But where we're now trying to reorganize that, and possibly for October, if COVID doesn't get again, obviously, you know, this is so as soon as that happens, we'll we'll be able to let everybody know. And I'm not quite sure if how in touch, or how up to date people are with and we are rise, which used to be to this knee tone and we are sport Northumberland sport. And so they did used to have a club finder on their database that will take you to ngbs. But I think now they've just got a contact us section on their website, the we are rise website, so that if there is a specific sport that you're interested, you can contact them, they work very closely with the ngb. So they might be able to put you in the right direction where it's annoying, it's not a taster. And you might not get the answers that you want. But it's it definitely is worth checking out. And or they're very unhappy, very heavy involved in disability sport month, which is October. And so I know they do have a number of taster sessions on some just thrown at your way because it might be something they jump on the back of in terms of raising awareness and, and having specific taster sessions for and vi sessions or what are their inclusion sessions that you might want to put on? Would you be able to put a link on to that? So yeah, the way our eyes Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great. Just reminds everybody, isn't it as well. But one thing I just like to jump in is, you know, all those adults, I presume, but getting visually impaired children to do sports is sometimes quite tricky. I think that's down to where, fortunately been in mainstream schools these days. And you don't get the contacts you pass the information out. And it doesn't get to the children. I mean, I know that basically because it's like courses, I was in a spool donor, a tennis course, waiting to go to the to the sports hall and they will the reception was formed. And there was said, Who can we put on this this course not eyes social suitable for this part. You know, but as I say, it's getting the word out. And to a lot, you know, children. Wendy, we've got an extra on the webinar I've got Penny Dane from Northeast St. matters, who they work with children and people with family. So you may be aware of and I know Penny is involved in some activities, respond all manner of activities actually simply go to their website nor the site matters to search for them, you'll find that you'll find them a penny, if you want to put the I'll put the details of your your organization in the report from this in the chat sort of section. Yeah, so you can find out and you can tell them about anything that you know, that you think they might not know, of, is one group for visually impaired children, but it's also multi disability as well. And Smile. Smile through spotter is that no, no, no covering the name of it. But it didn't seem to want to pass information on they just wanted to do their projects. Okay, right. Okay. Yeah. So, is there any more, because we're kind of getting to the eight minutes left? Now? Are there any more questions that we haven't kind of covered? What Well, this this one relates to? Bitcoin, you know, when you mentioned about a policy? And, yes, so yeah, it was, I want to be able to choose a gym on my own. Without having someone to help which I think Karen, that was something that you'd mentioned as well, not having somebody kind of following you around and sort of trailing around with you. And so is the equipment in gyms accessible enough. And I'm hoping that Martin is still on the session, as well, because obviously, we've got three people here, they've got some great experiences, so chawan. So from the legal perspective, is, if you feel confident, and fine, that you can use your equipment, okay. So if you're going to the gym, and you tell them, I've got visual impairment, and I show you how to use equipment, if you feel comfortable and confident to use you, then know you don't have to. But again, it's a confidence thing. But like I says, the gyms have to make sure that anybody accessing their environments are, are legally bound to make sure it's safe, not only for them, the person who's using it, but for the individuals around them as well. So, you know, it's wet working together with the gyms I would find, it's, you know, yeah, I understand you don't want to be fall around. And that's up to your right. But you've got to make sure that there's a safe environment, and you're safe, and everybody else around you is safe. And that's really for the gym to work for you individually, to assess that and come up with a plan. And the biggest problem is the fact that the machines aren't accessible. So in my case, I just couldn't see the to set the programs on the treadmill, for example. So if that was set by a member of staff, and that was fine, and that's all the support that I needed. But that wasn't offered at all, it was just you have it was all all or nothing. So you had to have somebody literally chaperone you the whole way around. And so if the machines could be more accessible, then there wouldn't be a problem, but they're not. Okay, concur with with Karen Martin here that machines could be more accessible, but they're, they're not. There have been examples of people that I've worked with before, where they have used bumper stickers to, to make the machines more accessible. But suicide, certainly the latest sort of cardiovascular machines are our touchscreen, and that that then just become just become more difficult. But there are, there are some machines that are easier to use than others. But there's a lot of work to do to to make them more accessible. And realistically, when you go into a gym, and you've got a disability, it's only called the park you for everybody must have this filled in before you start at a job search bar, your medical history and your medical conditions. And really the gym should be adapting to reasonable adjustments for you. And if they're not doing this, they're not meeting the Equality Act. really understand that cardiovascular special running machines and I have trouble with them as well in terms of keeping an eye on the time. So I have to come up with different ways when I'm on a roll. Only machine. What if you ask a member of staff? You know, just it's about asking a nice should oblige. But some gyms don't do that, because what they want you to do is use their personal trainers to then pay in knishes where, you know, this is what I get upset about that. I'm not asking you to train me. I'm asking you to help me use your equipment, and that's what you're there for. Nice. Okay, thanks. Thanks. I'm sorry, I'm just checking. Right. So we've got about three minutes left. So if it's okay with everybody, I'll just check him out just as an email from Kevin with a poll. That was another poll that we did in the beginning. So from those that answered the poll, remember the questions were about barriers to participation, we had quarter of people said knowing what's available was a barrier 31% so gone from fractions to whatever the equivalent is 31% it was getting there and transport 6% said cost was a barrier. 19% said accessibility and 90% self confidence, so quite a good spread. So it seems to be mainly just knowing what's available. That's interesting, and the kind of getting no transport between the two biggest barriers with accessibility, self confidence and cost coming, coming after that. So cost seems to be relatively small barrier. So that's sort of an interesting thing to know, I thought that would be a big barrier. So I've learned something from that. So yeah, we've got a couple of minutes left. So what I'm going to do is just sort of sum up. Now really, this has been a really good opportunity for people to share. And I've certainly learned an awful lot on this staff process this really so what the sight loss counseling channel was going to do is take the information that we've learned, and the connections that we've now got with people from the panelists and others who've joined the meeting, and then take a step forward, really into making, you know, all of the facilities that are available, whether they're specialist ones, or whether they're the general kind of leisure centers and other sports and activities and open air activities, as well as indoor ones, trying to work to make them as accessible as possible, and using the resources that Martin is developing to help get that awareness across and through engagement of our sales council members locally as well across time and where, and the great sort of, you know, open this from the likes of Monday at North Tyneside, and we should be able to kind of do quite a lot as we move out of lockdown and get more active again, trying to get those statistics data reversed, getting people more active. So thank you very much to the panelists for your time and expertise and insights. And for those who joined as attendees as well, really value your your time and energy this evening. So if you want to find out more about the work of our sales councils, just search sales councils or go to sales councils.org.uk. And there's all manner of determination about what we do generally across the country, what our national campaigns are, and what our local workers as well, if you'd like to join our sales counselors or visually impaired to live in town, and we're, well you know, someone who would be a good volunteer for us who wants to kind of share their expertise and lived experience would welcome them with open arms. You can find out how to join on the website as well. So thank you very much everybody. And just as we hit the seven o'clock mark, I will bid you a good night and now enjoy the rest of your evening. Thank you I mean just in time for Emmerdale. Okay, off you go. Thank you, everybody. Bye. Thank you. Bye   bye bye.