Our Man in Westminster

One of the things I most like doing with this column is bringing to light someone in the area who is doing a great job that not many people know about.

Today the spotlight falls on Tenterden, where Tamzin Read and her Dharma Gym Club are creating some extraordinary athletes.

I visited the Dharma Gym at Homewood School, to celebrate the fact that it has just been awarded £10,000 of National Lottery Funding from Sport England’s Small Grants Programme.

As Tamzin said, £10,000 may be small grant to them but to a club like hers it is a huge sum which allows her members to reach their full potential.

Dharma Gym is a trampolining club which has senior and junior members of all levels from club up to the highest international standard.

Their current star is a 17-yearold called Cameron who is winning tournaments around the country and who talks calmly and realistically about his hopes of competing in Rio in 2016.

A fact I learned about trampolining is that at the top level you can compete well into your 30s, so it may be that Cameron will be able to compete in multiple Olympics.

Even more importantly, the ethos of the club is that everyone helps everyone else, so he is helping to bring on other hopefuls who are younger than him. It is not often that you see an elite athlete helping an eight-year-old but that’s what happens at Dharma.

It was all very inspiring, and I came away hoping that, whether at Rio or some Olympics after that, I will be able to watch a British medal-winner and say: “I remember that wet Friday night in Tenterden when it was all starting off.”