EMMA CURRY

A£12,000 donation from the John Lewis Foundation is helping disabled athletes pursue their dreams of Paralympic and world championship glory.

The money has been given to Stockport Wheelchair Racing, based at Woodbank Park, which is currently working with 11 athletes aged between 12 and 67.

It has already paid dividends for sprinter Andy Small, who secured a Paralympic bronze medal in the 100 metres at Rio last year and followed it up with another bronze in the 100 metres at the World Para-athletics Championships in London this summer.

“I was a 10th of a second off silver at both championships, so I’m looking to improve on that,” said Andy, who competes in the 100 metres and 200 metres and travels from Crewe to train six days a week at the club’s base, shared with Stockport Harriers.

Having supported Stockport Wheelchair Racing though the Community Matters scheme, John Lewis Cheadle nominated the charity for the Foundation Award.

John Lewis’s donation is being used to buy equipment for the athletes – most notably carbon fibre wheels made in France and then fitted to each athlete’s custom-made racing chairs, manufactured in the UK. The cost of a typical chair is about £5,000.

Coach Rick Hoskins, who started the club 11 years ago and helped it achieve charitable status three years ago, said: “Without the support of John Lewis we wouldn’t be able to repair and replace the chairs and acquire state-of-the-art equipment,”

Hoping to follow Andy to Paralympic and World Para-athletics glory is Nate Williams, who competes in T34 100 metres to 800 metres events.

Rick added: “These two boys started with us as novices and Andy’s made it to international glory and Nate is on the verge of doing it, so thank you to John Lewis for supporting disability sport.”