‘I am a very lucky person to be doing something I love’ says top coach Anna
A SWIMMING teacher who works with disabled children and once coached Paralympic gold-medal winner Ellie Simmonds has been nominated for an award.
Anna Lavan, from Cheadle, has helped many children usually confined to a wheelchair to move independently in water for the first time.
Now she has been put forward for Adult Achiever of the Year in the Moorlands Heroes Awards.
The 59-year-old swimming teacher and coach runs Paddles Swimming School at South Moorlands Leisure Centre in Cheadle.
Families travel from across Staffordshire, Cheshire and further afield to benefit from Anna’s expertise.
Many current British Paralympic swimming competitors were first introduced to the pool by Anna, who currently has around 30 disabled children and young adults on her books.
She said: “From severe to mild cerebral palsy, autism or learning disabilities, the people I work with are an absolutely fabulous group and they’re all very different.
“My claim to fame is that I coached Ellie Simmonds when she was a young girl of eight or nine and I was a coach for West Midlands Disabled Swimmers.
“In fact a lot of current Paralympic swimmers came through me at an early stage.
“It tends to be that I teach them early on then they go through the governing body.”
Anna has been a swimming teacher for more than 40 years.
She initially worked for a cerebral palsy charity and then for British Swimming, which is where she met Ellie Simmonds.
“I was working in Birmingham at that time, and am still in contact with Ellie,” said Anna. “I volunteer my services at Ellie’s swimming gala every year.”
Anna said she was delighted to be nominated,
but that it is the children and young people she coaches who are the real heroes.
She said: “They’re doing exceptionally well, sometimes against all the odds.
“My main aim is to teach a child to move in water.
“They don’t always use recognised strokes because of their various disabilities but they are able to move by themselves.
“Some of the children who come to me are confined to a wheelchair 24/7 but then they get into the water and they can actually move independently. It blows me away all the time.
“I am a very lucky person to be doing something that I love so much.”
Anna started teaching swimming when she was just 14 years old, and amazingly was once afraid of the water.
She said: “I wasn’t the best swimmer in my group and was the last to learn to swim because I was frightened of it.
“I think that actually helps me now. Understanding how other people might feel in the water helps me to teach them. Once I started to swim I loved the feeling of the water and loved being in the water.
“The most important thing for me is helping children to be safe in the water and helping them to enjoy it.”
Anna was nominated by Jane Sergeant, who said: “She is an inspirational swimming teacher and swimming coach who started Paddles swimming classes for children and young people with disabilities.
“She has coached swimmers in preparation for the paralympics, including Ellie Simmonds.
“Anna has a passion for sport and is determined to work towards inclusive opportunities for those with disabilities.
“She is well known in the sporting world and within North Staffordshire and I ask that this nomination be given serious consideration.”