The joy of accesible sport and CP

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Paul McAuley Community reporter for Liverpool Echo

Ellis Palmer is now working alongside British Power Hockey Association.(Image: Ellis Palmer )

A man is doing the “unimaginable” after “giving up” when he was a teenager. Ellis Palmer, from Birkenhead, has been a wheelchair user for most of his life, having been diagnosed with cerebral palsy shortly after he was born.

The 30-year-old’s movement disorder affects his balance and coordination. As a result of his disability, the politics and Spanish graduate said he had to stop following his childhood passion.

The former Woodchurch High and West Kirby Grammar student told the ECHO: “I used to play football with a walker in primary school, but the health and safety culture went a bit rampant, and as you could imagine, I had to leave team sports behind.

“I was always on the playground playing, and I was just seen as one of the lads. I had that freedom that every school kid wished for, but when I went to secondary school, that was the end of it for me.

“I couldn’t play with my walker anymore, so I tried with my wheelchair, but it was a disaster. It got stuck in the mud, the wheels got ruined, and it ended up breaking. From 11 onwards, I gave up and shied away.”

Ellis explained how, over the years, he dabbled with sports again - but more often than not, finding his disability was proving too much to participate. That was until he eventually came across Power Hockey at Greenbank Sports Academy.

The sport, essentially, is played in electric wheelchairs with people - who have cerebral palsy or Duchenne muscular dystrophy - chasing after a hockey-size ball and physical contact is permitted. Ellis said he thinks of it as powerchair-rugby.

He said: “It’s great to be now able to participate in a way that I never really could have imagined or pictured myself doing when I was growing up. There’s nothing like feeling that comradery of playing team sports. It's the sport I always wanted to play growing up but never knew existed.”

Despite falling back in love with a sport, Ellis said there are “still so many barriers” in place - often barriers able-bodied people don’t think twice about. Ellis explained how traveling from Claughton to the L17 postcode area, takes him around an hour and a half, involving two busses and a 15-minute walk and the same back home again.

He added: “I can’t just nip to the park to play Sunday league with a couple of my mates and then head to the pub for a pint. I just can’t. Most of the time, I use public transport because I can’t drive.

"I love doing it, but the lack of availability in one’s area is a massive barrier to disabled people doing sport, especially if they can’t get there independently.”

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/man-doing-unimaginable-after-giving-30139262