‘The thought of going onto the pitch would make me cry’

STRUGGLING WITH AUTISM AND ADHD, TALENTED FOOTBALLER ELIZA HICKEY SAYS THAT NATIONAL LOTTERY-FUNDED ABILITY COUNTS SAVED HER LIFE

Life has never been straightforward for Eliza. Over the past few years she’s been diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum and with ADHD.

“On the surface she seems like a regular 16-year-old with a lot of energy,” says her mum, Maree Munn. “But change, no matter how small, can totally deregulate her.

“Eliza finds it especially difficult to leave the house. She also has sensory issues, for example with smells, and textures of clothes.”

But one thing has offered Eliza a lifeline: her love of football and, more specifically the National Lottery-supported

Aston Villa Ability Counts scheme, which received funding to help it set up four new disability teams.

Eliza and her teammates have entered the Female Football Series, a pan-disability programme organised by the County FA network.

But to start with it wasn’t easy for the teenager, who joined Ability Counts in January 2017.

“I’d stand on the sidelines in the cold, wanting to play, but not being able to,” she recalls. “Even the thought of going onto the pitch would make me cry. It’s like someone telling you to jump off a cliff, land on your feet and not have injuries – it just felt impossible to do.”

But as Eliza watched the other players, she realised there were people in the team she could relate to. “I was always thinking, ‘ Will they accept me for who I am?’ But I saw they were being weird in the best way, like me,” she says. “And I finally got up the courage to play.” With the help of head coach Nigel and the rest of the Ability Counts team, she started to play more regularly, and her talent shone through. Now Eliza plays for the mainstream women’s team Solihull Sporting FC, and credits Nigel and his team for her success.

“He gave me the confidence to go for mainstream football,” she says. “From the start, he saw something in me, and even made me captain of the under16s. It was what I needed to push me to do it.”

Ability Counts is just one of the good causes you help support through the £30million* you raise every week by playing The National Lottery.

As for Eliza, she has now started coaching with Ability Counts. “Because I have similar experiences to the kids who play, I understand what might have triggered, say, a meltdown or upset,” she says. “I can relate to them.”

“I love coaching because it takes me back to when Villa was the only thing for me,” she adds. “For that child it could be the only thing for them, but also for their parents. It’s so difficult to have kids with special needs; that two-hour football session gives them a break.

“I want to be able to help people and give them what Villa gave me.”

Eliza is in no doubt just how important the Ability Counts programme has been for her : “It’s saved my life. It shows how talented kids with needs can play, no matter what their disability might be. That’s just a label.”

It’s saved my life – and shows how talented kids with needs can play, no matter their

disability

ON THE BALL Eliza shows off her

dribbling skills