A PERSONAL VIEW OF SHOOTING AND DISABILITY

BY MANDY PANKHURST

Prior to April 2005 I had no previous shooting experience and had never picked up a rifle. In April 2005 I attended the UK Inter Spinal Unit Games at Stoke Mandeville whilst a patient in the Spinal Injuries Unit, RNOH Stanmore. I was encouraged by Di Coates and Rosie and Keith Hughes to look into joining a local club and to then perhaps join Disability Target Shooting Great Britain (DTSGB).

By the end of April I had joined CENTURION TARGET SPORTS CLUB and DTSGB and I have not looked back since. My current role within Centurion is Airgun Captain

What do I get out of shooting? Might be easier to list what I don't get out of shooting?

Following the accident I felt as though life would never be “normal” again. Well in one way it no longer is but not in the way I could ever have imagined. “Normal” just after the accident meant being able bodied and what I would now consider as being on the treadmill of life working day in day out and existing. Shooting has given me new challenges. My life is no longer normal not because a set of wheels has replaced my legs but because my schedule revolves around training and competition timetables and having the opportunity to not only travel internationally but the goal is the 2012 paralympics.

I find the discipline therapeutic. There are times when I feel uptight and “I can't be bothered” but I pick up the rifle and then lose myself and at the end of a session come home more relaxed. I have met new friends.

The coaching from Les Gay along with the encouragement I have received, and continue to receive, from fellow members of Centurion has given me the confidence to achieve what, just two years ago I considered to be the impossible i.e compete at international level with a chance to be involved in an Olympic Games, surely every athletes dream. All this and it is fun as well at whichever level of participation in the sport.

Shooting therefore has shown me it is possible to still have a life after disability and that I have an ability – not a disability.

If it were not for shooting I probably would not be as independent or as strong as I now am.