On the 17th November 2020, a special event took place at Live Youth Centre in Chester on the outdoor basketball court.  

Our Cheshire Phoenix Wheelchair Basketball Club Head Coach Anna had no idea what was going to happen after being told that she would be doing an interview with BBC North West to talk about sport during the pandemic.  

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This was of course partly true; however, Anna did not realise that she would

be going home with a very special award at the end of the filming.  

Unbeknown to Anna, Vice-Captain of the club Stephanie Taylor had

nominated Anna for the BBC North West tonight Christmas Star award,

for all the hard work and selflessness throughout the pandemic, making

sure the club met every week via zoom and for helping club members by

getting fitness equipment and for putting everyone’s mental health and

wellbeing as a priority.  BBC North West thought that it was a wonderful

story and chose Anna as one of a few to win the award.

 

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After arriving at Live, the interviews and playing shots were taken, including

a sneaky interview with Stephanie and Anna’s partner Karen about the award. 

 At the end of filming a few more shots were taken as a group

(all socially distanced) which is when Stephanie spilled the special secret and

Karen presented the award.   Anna was in complete shock and could not

believe what had just happened “I am so honoured to win this award, my aim

over lockdown was to keep our club together even though we could not be

together. Not being able to training has been tough for everyone but with a weekly zoom and some extra fun sessions online I feel we all know each other so much better and it has been amazing to see everyone supporting each other” 

 

The interview and presentation of the award was shown on BBC North West tonight (Monday 14th) at 6:30pm.