Charity show boost for Cork’s Rebel Wheelers sports club

Rebel Wheelers, a Cork-based sports club for children and young adults with physical disabilities is the chosen charity for Ireland’s second annual Care and Mobility Show.

A key element of the show, in the RDS in Dublin on April 22-23, will be the inclusion of a special sports arena featuring wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and tennis.

Some of the 50-plus members of Rebel Wheelers will take part in a number of exhibition games to show their sporting prowess and how well they get along with each other.

Rebel Wheelers founder Lucia Ryan, whose son Cathal is a participant, said they started with just five members in 2008. Cathal, 14, who has Erb’s Palsy, a condition that hasaffects his left arm, excels at athletics.

In 2011 businessman Nadim Sadek donated €5,000 to the club when it was featured on The Secret Millionaire on RTÉ.

The core ethos of Rebel Wheelers is to promote inclusion, self-esteem, fun and teamwork, while reaping the health benefits of participation in sport.

“Members of our club are proof that you can live a very active life and playing sports is of enormous benefit to both mental and physical health,” said Ms Ryan.

However, the club, run by parents, is more than just giving members a sense of achievement. It helps children work as a team and to experience winning, as well as losing.

“The club has become a great social outlet for the children who have become firm friends and look out for each other,” said Lucia.

Rebel Wheelers caters for young people, aged five to 18, who have a physical disability such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, dyspraxia and hydrocephalus.

Lucia said they wanted the children to reach their potential in sport and offered a vast range of sports. Many members participate in competitions across the country.

“We will try anything, literally anything. We want to expose the children to as many sports as possible,” she said.

Some of the parents are qualified as trainers, but all of them work very hard to keep the club going.

Funding is by random grants for equipment and each member family pays a fee of €2 per session

Organiser and director of MedCare Events Adam Lingard said the sports arena would allow people with a disability the opportunity to experience the benefits of becoming involved in a sporting activity.

The show, a positive platform for independent living for almost 600,000 people in Ireland with a disability, will feature more than 1,000 products and services. Two conferences will also be held for occupational therapists and physiotherapists and for health nurses working in the community or in care settings.

An intensive certified professional training course for clinical professionals will also cover topics including sleep systems, wheelchair seating and postural positioning.

Junior Health Minister Kathleen Lynch, who launched the event, said too often needing help was associated with a weakness and not a way of making people more independent.