On Sunday 15th June Olympus KeyMed raised over £600 for Shaftesbury at their wheelchair basketball tournament. [Olympus KeyMed is an Essex based leading manufacturer of innovative optical and digital equipment for the healthcare and consumer electronics sectors.]
With the World Cup in full swing, most people can’t move for football at the moment. Essex based company Olympus KeyMed decided to buck that trend by holding a wheelchair basketball tournament at Riverside Ice & Leisure in order to raise money for Shaftesbury – and have a laugh!
The tournament was a huge success with 6 teams (made up of able bodied competitors and one wheelchair user) fighting it out, and a great crowd turnout too. Team ‘Toulouse’ battled hard throughout and Martin Thompson earned himself the coveted ‘Man of the Match’ award. However, the overall winners were ‘Wheels of Steel’, whose ‘well oiled’ counter attacks meant they romped home as tournament winners.
Chris Byford, a Technical Service trainer at Olympus KeyMed enjoyed the experience and said, ‘At first I found it difficult to manoeuvre the wheelchair but I got better quite quickly. It was very tempting to try to jump up a bit to catch the ball which made me aware of how frustrating it must be sometimes.’
For Kevin Collins, who was part of the victorious ‘Wheels of Steel’ team, the experience of being in a wheelchair showed him some of the challenges of having a disability, ‘Taking part in this event opened my eyes to how difficult it must be for those in a wheelchair to not be able to enjoy the freedom and flexibility others take for granted. Even just a short time in the wheelchair made me realise how much the majority of people take for granted as a given human right.’
Overall more than £600 was raised with each team raising £100. The money will go towards improving Shaftesbury’s services across the country and improving resident’s kitchens in their own flats at Dolphin Court (Southend, Essex). The money raised from this event adds to a huge total raised by Olympus KeyMed since they chose Shaftesbury as their Charity of the Year for 2014/2015.
[Olympus KeyMed raise £5,000 at charity gala (15th March, 2014) https://www.shaftesburygroup.org/news/2014/olympus-keymed-raise-5000-masquerade-ball/ ]
Head of Events and Corporate Giving at Shaftesbury, Lisa Hemsley, also said, ‘I am thrilled with how the basketball tournament went! Olympus KeyMed has already done a great deal of work for us in raising funds and this event is another example of their ingenuity in getting people to donate.’