Local figure skaters raise cash ahead of comeback

Kids at North Lanarkshire Figure Skating Club have raised over £2500 for the club as they bid to get back on the ice by the end of September.

It has been a long six months for the club, which is based at the Time Capsule in Coatbridge, and head coach Gemma Chaddock is desperate to get back coaching again.

It’s Gemma’s livelihood, but she says the kids are missing something that is a major part of their lives.

She said:“The plan is that we’re going to be back on the ice at the end of September. We’ve had a first consultation with the Time Capsule, so they’re re-laying the ice and working out all the protocols.

“That’s six months the kids have been off the ice now. It has been really disheartening, because two weeks before lockdown started we were supposed to have the last qualifier for the British Championships, which were supposed to be three or four weeks later.

“That was everything a lot of the kids had been working towards for the last couple of years.

“Everybody is desperate to get back – all any of us do is skate, it’s all I’ve ever done since I was eight, and we do it pretty much every day at 6am before school, then after school until 9pm.”

Kids raised £2500 through a Go Fund Me page set up by committee member Danielle Mullen, and Gemma was impressed with the amount they raised.

She added: “With the unprecedented times we’re in just now there are a lot of people out of work, and the situation has just been so hard, so to raise that amount of money so everything is set up and ready to go is great.

“There’s lots of funding sitting there, waiting for the kids when they do get back to training and competitions.

“Initially we set a target of £500 and it just kept building; we wondered if we would be able to get it to £2000, but they managed to beat that as well.

“It’s hard to keep everybody so motivated, to keep pushing when it’s six months down the line, so this is quite something.”