Meet Freya
Freya is a young girl who loves tennis.
At 10 years old, Freya was taken to hospital and diagnosed with a Brain Tumour. As a result, she spent several months learning to walk, talk & write again. The tumour also left Freya severely sight impaired in her right eye.
About 6 months after leaving hospital, Freya decided she wanted to go back to her tennis sessions which she had enjoyed every Saturday morning for about two years before the tumour.
At first Freya was a little nervous to return to tennis with her sight impairment, but as soon as she got back on court, she loved playing again.
Freya loves to meet up every Saturday morning with her tennis friends, who all come from different schools, and loves the challenge of learning different strokes and techniques and improving on certain areas especially her serve.
Going back to tennis has helped Freya to work on her core strength and coordination. Her coaches at Atlantic Racquet Centre have been brilliant and have been able to make adaptions to help Freya with her sight loss. She now takes two bounces when she needs to, and sometimes during rallies the tennis assistant stands behind Freya to help keep rallies going.
Going to tennis makes me feel excited every Saturday morning and motivates me. It makes me feel included in the group, and everyone accepts me as myself, I’m just Freya and I don’t feel singled out
Freya is looking forward to taking part in some of the LTA Visually impaired initiatives when she is a bit older and may even represent Great Britain at International Events.
Freya has been awarded a grant from The Dan Maskell Trust to support her coaching, which is enabling her to continue her lessons and help her on her tennis journey.
What the LTA Tennis Foundation funded
The LTA Tennis Foundation awarded a grant to support Dan Maskel Tennis Trust (DMTT) who provide grants to disabled people to enable them to play tennis.
The grant has supported DMTT to grow their programme to cope with the increased demand they are seeing for support.
DMTT supports wheelchair, deaf, learning disability and blind and visually impaired tennis, with funding towards Specialist Wheelchairs, Equipment and Grants for individuals and groups such as clubs, disability organisations and schools.
Improving Lives Through Tennis
Together, we can help ensure people of all backgrounds have the opportunity to play and enjoy tennis. Every donation makes a difference - no matter how big or small. Thank you for all your support.