Autumn 2023 - Newsletter

Greetings from our President Elaine Paige OBE

Welcome everyone to our latest Newsletter!

In June I had the pleasure of attending the Golf Day, which was a great success, at our new venue, the stunning RAC Club. We had marvellous weather and the whole day was enjoyed by all. After the golf we had a fun lunch, which included an hilarious speech by comedian Jimmy Tarbuck and an impromptu performance by Jonathon Whaley, impersonating Donald Trump and Boris Johnson! 

It was a real pleasure to meet our wonderful supporters at the Golf Day and a month later at Wimbledon, where I also managed to meet with the British players in the Wheelchair categories. I’d like to offer my personal congratulations to Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett on both being awarded an OBE; and to the Deaf and Visually Impaired teams who represented Great Britain so valiantly at recent international events.

Finally, I’d like to remind you there are so many ways you can help the Trust. The important work we do is in this newsletter and on the website, so I urge you to get on board with any of the initiatives listed. I’m also excited to tell you we have been included in the ‘Big Give’ Christmas fundraiser, which will ‘match fund’ the amount we raise helping us achieve our target even faster!

Thank you again for your continued support, we are so proud of the work the Trust continues to do and I hope you enjoy reading about our recent news and achievements.

With love,

Elaine's website

Big Give Christmas Challenge

Right in the nick of time for publication we have learnt that we were successful in our application to be part of the ‘Big Give Christmas Challenge’! This means that in the week of November 28^th till December 5^th, funds donated through the campaign will be doubled through match funding!

We would love to encourage you all to run a fundraising event at your Tennis Club or social group to raise funds for our grant aid funding. We have had Club’s run fun tournaments, host quiz nights or hold a bake sale. We have a range of prizes that we can offer to anyone running a fundraiser, to be used in either a charity auction or as a prize. Please get in touch if you would like to take part.

It is important that the donations are submitted in the week Nov 28 – Dec 5 to be eligible for the match funding. We can also include individuals who raise funds for us, like 10 year old Hettie who last year made and sold hair scrunchies to raise money for the Trust. Please put your thinking caps on and get involved!

Disability Camps with the LTA

In our last newsletter we reported on the success of the Disability Tennis coaching camps we had run alongside the LTA. We still had one camp left to run which ended up being a very successful Visually Impaired Camp, and in fact our Learning Disability camp was so popular that we have organized another one for the 4 November at Chesterfield Tennis Centre – it was fully booked within 2 weeks of being advertised!

Golf Day success

A new home for the Golf Challenge this year at the RAC Club near Epsom brought together 19 teams to play on the Old Course and enjoy the beautiful surroundings on a sunny Friday in June. After a lot of hard work, we are proud to announce that the day raised just over £22,000 in total.

The after-golf festivities included a meal in the Cedar Room with the unexpected delights of impromptu “performances” from Jimmy Tarbuck and our own President Elaine Paige. Actor Jonathan Whaley gave impressions of two current controversial characters and our master auctioneer, TV and Radio Presenter Marcus Buckland, did his usual sterling job of persuading the audience to part with their money for some wonderful lots in the auction.

Easyfundraising update

We have featured Easyfundraising in past newsletters, which is a super easy way for you to raise funds for us at no cost to use – just by activating an extension on your browser for any online purchases. We have just 15 people signed up and would love to at least double this. Gilly and Liz use this extension for any online purchases, and without any effort Gilly is leading the way this year with £70 raised with Liz following closely on £60. As an example, Liz earned £12.50 when she did her car insurance renewal and smaller amounts like £1.20 when she purchased a vacuum from Currys and a few sets of £4 for one night hotel stays. You can click the link here to sign up, or feel free to email Liz for any help or advice.

CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) Regular Donations 

Did you know that on our website there is an opportunity to sign up to make a regular direct debit donation which can be monthly, quarterly or annually? You can choose any amount and be guaranteed that any funds donated go directly to our grant aid funding pot. The link is here.

IBSA World Games

The Team GB Blind and Visually Impaired Tennis team recently competed at the IBSA World Games in Birmingham. Our British players showed what strength GB has in disability tennis, collecting 11 of the 33 medals on offer! We were really proud to see so many players we have supported with funding as well as a couple of our Ambassadors taking part. Well done to everyone, you can see more about the event here.

World Deaf Tennis Tournament

Our Deaf Tennis Team also returned victorious from the World Deaf Tennis Tournament in Crete. Phoebe Suthers and Lewis Fletcher (DMTT Ambassador) won the mixed doubles silver medal. Well done to the team of 5 who travelled to Crete as well as head coach Cathy Fletcher and team manager Sophie Hall.

LTA Tennis Foundation funding towards our grant aid pot

We were excited to be named in the first group of charities to receive funding support from the newly formed ‘LTA Tennis Foundation’. The Foundation granted us funding for three years which we have already been busily putting to use in 2023. We have so far completed three groups of funding applications and for the period January through to August 2023 the DMTT has approved 62 grants totalling £43,273 to disabled individuals and disability groups. This included 15 wheelchairs, 28 individuals funded with coaching/court hire equipment and 19 groups funded. Our final round of funding application for 2023 closes on October 22.

Gordon and Alfie featured in the King’s Birthday honours list

We were so delighted to hear that both Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett were each awarded an OBE for services to tennis in the King’s Birthday honours list 2023. A presentation took place at Windsor Castle, which just so happened to be on Gordon’s birthday! The Trust has followed the career of these two inspiring players from when they were just teenagers, supporting both financially on their journey.

Jack Draper continues to support disability tennis

In our last newsletter we shared with you a video we complied of Jack Draper taking part at our Blind tennis camp. The LTA recently invited Jack back to play some more Blind and Visually Impaired tennis and they made a great video which you can watch here.