We are pleased to be supporting the Level Playing Field ‘Unite For Access’ campaign at our home game against Forest Green Rovers tomorrow.
The campaign shines a light on access and inclusion at sports venues across the country from Saturday 24th February through to Sunday 10th March.
This year’s campaign focuses specifically on unseen disabilities that affect millions of people in the UK. Latest estimates are that there are 16m people in the UK with a disability and around 70% of these are not visible. The range of disabilities making up this number is vast and includes things like sight loss, hearing loss, autism, ADHD, mental health, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and serious medical conditions such as heart defect.
As a club, we pride ourselves on being inclusive to all and our disabled supporters have always been hugely important to us. We work closely with Level Playing Field to understand the needs of our disabled supporters and we have regular dialogue with our disabled supporters’ group as well. We also employ Jane Stephenson as our Disability Liaison Officer on a matchday at Blundell Park.
Our disabled supporter’s community has been going strong for decades and they attend around 15 away games every season as a group. We are delighted that the group are now looking at formalising the representation of disabled supporters by forming a Disabled Supporters Association and we should have more details about this available in the coming weeksA couple of years ago, through the work of the Mariners Trust, the club also developed sensory packs for supporters with autism and other special needs which include fidget toys, name cards, a map and noise cancelling headphones. These are available upon request by emailing our SLO kristinegreen@gtfc.co.uk.
To raise awareness of the campaign on Saturday, the players will warm up in T-shirts carrying the ‘Unite For Access’ message, members of our disabled supporters group will be our pre-match flagbearers, our Grimsby Town Ability Counts FC team, who offer competitive affiliated football to players with special educational needs and or a disability over the age of 16 years, will be on the pitch at half-time and the teams will also be led out by a very special Mariners supporter, Sophie Hogg.
16-year-old Sophie is one of our disabled supporters and she was born with complex congenital heart disease which causes many other life-affecting conditions. Sophie’s been attending Town games with her family since she was toddler and loves nothing more than supporting the Mariners, home and away, whilst making memories with her family.
Please take the time to visit the Level Playing Field website www.levelplayingfield.org.uk and find out more about the great they do to improve access and inclusion at sports venues.
If you would like any information about Grimsby Town Disabled Supporters, please email gtfcdisabledtravel@gmail.com or follow on Facebook and X (Formally Twitter).
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