Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson visits Dunannie

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson visits Dunannie

04/07/2011

Pupils at Bedales pre-preparatory school Dunannie attended a very special assembly with Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson to find out about her amazing career as a wheelchair athlete and view her collection of gold medals won at five paralympic games. Tanni was delighted to hear from the pupils that they had helped to raise £7500 for disability charity Whizz-Kidz, which will fund the purchase of a powered wheelchair for a child.

Dunannie pupils and staff were fascinated to hear about Tanni’s journey to become a paralympian and the commitment and dedication required to train and compete against the best in the world. Tanni remembers the excitement of receiving her first racing wheelchair at 14 and then her first paralympic games at just 17.  Everyone was in awe of the gold medals that Tanni had won and enjoyed touching them and feeling how heavy they were. Tanni pointed out that the medals also had Braille engravings on the reverse. Tanni remarked that one goal she failed to achieve was to beat her husband and fellow paralympian in a race, although she said she did come very close and wheeled her chair closer to the children in the front row to show how close she came to beating him. Her passion for wheelchair racing was particularly evident when she remarked that the best present she ever received was 3 metres of aluminium that her husband bought from Russia, which helped to make a customised racing wheelchair for her.

The children asked Tanni lots of questions and she remarked ‘This is harder than BBC’s Question Time!’ The most challenging question was, ‘What can you do in a wheelchair that I can’t do?’ to which Tanni replied ‘I can do wheelies’ and she then proceeded to do a demonstration. One Nursery child asked Tanni what age she was when she first sat in a wheelchair and she explained that it was aged six because of Spina bifida. Tanni helped continue the success of fundraising for Whizz Kids by donating a signed bottle of House of Lords champagne, which was auctioned at the school’s sports day and achieved £400.

Commenting on the special assembly with Tanni, Dunannie Head Jo Webbern, said: “Everyone enjoyed Tanni’s visit, which was particularly timely because of our recent fundraising for Whizz Kidz and the discussions we have been having in class about the Olympics and Paralympics next year. Not many people can say they have held a gold medal and felt the weight of it in the palm of their hands so this was a very special experience. Tanni was inspirational and it was wonderful for the children to hear how ambitions and personal goals can be achieved as long as you believe in yourself and put in a lot of hard work and effort.”

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