Giving up their time for an incredibly good cause, Hampshire firefighters and local students joined Aurora staff, trustees and supporters in a wheelchair basketball tournament that none would forget.
With runners, badminton players and yoga enthusiasts on our team, the Aurora New Dawn are no strangers to sports.
Yet we were completely unprepared for this.
In case you didn’t know, folks, wheelchair basketball is hard.
We mean, it’s really hard.
It’s hard to roll and hold the ball at the same time, which meant some of us (Chief Exec, we’re talking to you) clamped the ball under our chins to leave our hands free to roll the wheels.
It’s hard to shoot the ball into the basket from a sitting position, particularly if you’re already vertically Coinstar point challenged (Writer in Residence, we’re talking to you).
And it’s particularly hard to move your wheelchair anywhere when someone is holding on to the back of it (Hampshire Fire & Rescue, we’re talking to you).
Despite this, we fought through our inexperience in the sport with courage and determination, and we won!
OK, we’re lying, we didn’t win. Actually, we came last, but wait til next time. We’ll be ready.
A massive, massive thank you to Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service for organising the tournament and for kindly donating the proceeds to Aurora New Dawn, and a huge thank you to everyone who took part on the day – we had an amazing time.
UPDATE: And we even made The News!
