Mum of powerchair football player with rare condition fundraises for new team chairs

The mum of a 10-year-old powerchair football player who lives with a rare genetic condition is raising thousands to buy new chairs for the team.

Holyport resident Beccy Davies is hoping to exceed her £6,500 GoFundMe target to be able to provide new DB Bullet powerchairs for the whole of her son’s team the Farnham Flames.

In 2017, Beccy’s son Archie was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare life-limiting and progressive muscle wasting condition.

But despite his condition, Beccy and her husband Alex, who are also parents to sons Freddie, eight, and Otto, three, encouraged Archie to play sport and he joined the Farnham Powerchair Football Club.

The team, which trains at Farnham Heath End School on Saturdays, plays competitive matches in the South East League and has won the South East League Fair Play award.

Their team shirts are all sponsored by Junior’s Cafe and Soft Play.

Beccy said: “He can still walk at the moment and he can still run, which is amazing, but he uses a wheelchair for longer distances.

“We tried to find a sport that he could participate in.

“We’re quite involved with the Duchenne community and we’d heard that powerchair football was actually a really incredible sport.”

As a new team which has been set up in recent years, players have been using older powered wheelchairs, but Beccy explained that now that they are more established, newer chairs are needed.

“We just feel it’s right that they have chairs that can help them succeed more,” Beccy said.

She added that the cost of a DB Bullet powerchair is more than £6,600 and so far two new chairs have been bought for the team, but the aim is to buy new chairs for all the players.

She said: “There’s all different needs. The children who play, some of them really need a lot of body support within the chair so they’re really specifically set up for certain people so they really need a chair each ideally.

“It would be amazing if we could get one for all of them, but we’re just trying to start off small and just build up the chairs,” Beccy added.

So far on her own GoFundMe page, more than £1,700 of Beccy’s £6,500 target has been raised and she hopes that it will be succeeded.

“[It’s] amazing. The generosity of people is something that, ever since Archie got diagnosed, has just blown us away.

She added: “I think the team spirit of it is the most important thing for [Archie]. His competitive side can really shine through when he’s playing.

“The freedom it gives him is amazing.

“We have people come in from like the powerchair [football] league who play professionally, who come in and take lessons and things and again that’s so inspirational for these children to see that and see where it could go.”

Beccy’s GoFundMe fundraiser can be viewed at: www.gofundme.com/f/buy-a-new-football-powerchair-for-archie 

For more information about the Farnham Flames , visit: www.farnhampowerchairfootball.org/